Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Twists and Truths
by Snivine444
Summary: Every light casts a shadow...but will one find a way when shadows threaten to overtake light? The Truth is shrouded in darkness; everywhere, pokemon are being ripped of their powers, and nothing is as it seems. This is no ordinary mystery dungeon. [CURRENTLY BEING REWRITTEN!] Rated T for possible very mild violence and other.
1. Prologue(UN-UPDATED)

_A great serpentine pokémon watched, cringing in horror as another great rumble of the earth sent even the oldest and sturdiest trees crashing to the ground. Everywhere Pokémon fled, flying, running and swimming for their lives, a sudden fire beginning then dying without warning, cyclones forming to blow fiercely only to dissipate again and giant tidal waves rising and frothing with power before falling to the ground lifelessly._

 _Six stubby legs protruded from the spectating pokémon's usually legless body, and his many ghostly strand-like wings fused together to create two great wings. The many spikes on his tail withdrew and he felt the crest on and around his head change slightly. He was now much more suited to the environment and looked more like a centipede than a serpent._

It's getting worse every time _he thought grimly,_ yet what can I do? This can't keep happening, Pokémon are dying- the world is dying!

 _Then he spotted a nest, with two precious eggs lying helplessly as a whirling tornado of fire raged towards it._

" _No!" he cried, and swooped down, clutching one with his legs and another in his jaws as gently as possible._

" _The demon Pokémon! The demon has come to take my eggs!" a swanna carrying another three eggs shrilled from below. He could see that she would have carried all five if she could, but the rush of destruction had forced her to leave the other two behind. So he wouldn't cause the poor mother more worry than she already had, he quickly dropped the eggs off in the safe notch of a nearby cliff._

 _Suddenly, he let out a screech of pain as a gust formed and he was struck by a bolt of lightning, sending him crashing out of the sky and into the side of a mountain. Rain fell, soon turning into hail that frosted his wings and body._ _The Pokémon tried to move, but flinched when an icy gust encased some of his body and one of his wings in ice._

 _"Oh Gina, you try so hard to protect this world but you can't, you know you can't. Soon it will be gone, ripped apart in front of your eyes- that is, unless... You could free them now, you need not let your precious keeper be shredded of its most unique...powers" a voice cooed. With a growl, the pokemon heaved himself up to a crouching position and looked around. A dark shadowy being drifted around the crater his crash had made._

 _"You..." he hissed._

 _"Oh yes, it's me dear Gina" it replied._

 _"You are the one behind all of this! Why are you doing this?! Have you not learnt your lesson?" the centipede-like pokemon asked._

 _"You know very well why! I will make the world suffer... I will make all of you feel what I've gone through!" the figure snarled._

 _"When I find where you're hiding..."_

 _"Ah, but you won't. I'm getting stronger already, just imagine when I get my claws on the keeper! Which reminds me... Where is that little keeper hiding? Tell me, I know you know where it is"_

 _"No, never! I will inform the Original one of your doings, then you will stand no chance!"_

 _"Oh no you don't"_

 _"You cannot drain a great legendary and you don't have any powers either, don't even think about it. You will be stopped"_

 _"Or will I? It's strenuous work, supervising two dimensions at once isn't it? I might have no power, but I do have shadow magic. It may have been very weak before, but my rage and thirst for revenge topped up with new essence has given it enough fuel for one thing that will make sure you never bother us again"_

 _The pokemon looked up at the figure, hoping it wasn't talking about what he thought it might be. A laugh rang out from the figure as its shadowy shape darkened to a crimson red that then shot out from the being in ominous wisps, surrounding its frozen target and plunging into its body. The pokemon shrieked, writhing and thrashing as its body too glowed a faint crimson red._

 _"B-but...it exhausts you of your power..." he gasped._

 _"You are right" the figure said, the ghostly shape wavering a little, "but it is worth it, for rendering you helpless to get in my way again... I don't intend on the past repeating itself. I will collect that power back though, don't worry. And then perhaps we can have a more lengthy talk. But for now, I must concentrate on finding that elusive little keeper who's location you sadly refused to reveal. Your magnificent new stony body should be done within a few hours."_

 _With that, the shape had another sharp waver then dissipated into plumes of crimson red. To the now cursed pokemon's horror, his tail had already begun to stiffen and his whole body felt tired and heavy. Before long, he could no longer stand, and collapsed onto the ground._

 _Somewhere below, a crevice cracked open and hot lava burbled up slowly but steadily, Pokémon quickly dispersing from the spot. Though they were fast, some were not fast enough. Screams filled the air as those few unlucky Pokémon fell victim to the crack quickly racing across the land. He would've tried to save them, but there was nothing he could do, nothing._

 _The Pokémon closed his eyes, he didn't want to watch. This could not happen, it could not happen any longer! The world was falling into ruin!_

" _It is time" he whispered, "It is time to return!"_

* * *

From the heart,

of past revenge,

Comes a force,

to bring avenge.

What has been taken,

will come again,

This time for darkness,

for death and for pain.

It will lie waiting,

Tricking and baiting,

But hidden from thy's,

Cold heart and eyes,

Is the seed of hope,

Waiting to rise.

From the origin,

where it does not belong,

Hunting and hate,

will turn into song.

Let go of your wings,

And let yourself fall.

Trust, believe,

And that will be all.

Come and save us,

From blood and from ruth,

Embark on a destiny,

To seek out the truth.

Now is the time, _To Return._


	2. Chapter 1(UN-UPDATED)

Seekers of Truth

 **Note: I AM NOT some selfish person who decided to name their main character after themselves, I simply didn't know what to name her and thought it was a nice name ok? Besides, it's only a username.**

 **[UPDATE!]**

 **This story is currently being rewritten, mainly because of some plot-holes and other that was left after I first began writing the story for fun. I then developed the plot and story much better and it was hard constantly updating the chapters and worrying about whether anyone would see it so yeaaaahhh...**

 **more information on this subject in the author notes('chapter 7')!**

 **:D**

….

 **9:23 Nimbasa City outskirts, Unova**

In the dark night, a small sleek figure darted out of a house clutching a precious loaf of bread, quickly pursued by three other figures.

" _You slippery little theif! Come back here!"_

" _She's not getting away this time!"_

" _I've called the police, they're gonna be here any minute!"_

The smaller figure only threw a big juicy berry at each of their faces in response.

" _You're fast for a little girl, but we'll catch you!"_ the largest of the three pursuing figures growled, wiping rotten berry juice from his face.

The small nimble streak suddenly skidded to a stop- but not quickly enough. With a squeal, it slipped off the slippery side of a cliff that wasn't supposed to exist and plunged into the dark, murky depths of the lake waiting patiently below.

She only saw strange purplish light radiating off the water combined with the mumbled cries of the three looming figures above before everything blacked out.

* * *

 _Come back destined one! Come back!_ A kaleidoscope of colours swirled everywhere as the voice rang out. _Home….home…come…_

"hreyv… a?... ni… wayu… up… gdywikl?!..."

"uhh… huh…?"

"hrvvey… hrey… HEY!" The figure's mind unclouded. "Hey! Are you ok? Hello? Can you hear me?"

The figure's eyes opened to see a pichu peeking at it worriedly.

"W-where am I….?" she groaned.

"You're awake!" The pichu exclaimed, pulling the figure up. "This is Serene Forest. What happened to you?"

The figure didn't know what to say. "Y-you're talking…"it mumbled. The pichu looked at the figure quizzically.

"Yeah, of course I can talk! I could speak fluently within 2 days of hatching!" it said proudly. "Why are you so surprised? I'm a talking pichu, Nimbus is a talking whimsicott and you're a talking snivy."

"WHAT?! _SNIVY_?!" The figure squealed. Indeed, it had changed since the last time the figure was conscious. The snivy shook its head in shock.

"No! No, I'm a human!" she stammered. The pichu simply giggled, seemingly amused by the strange snivy's crazy claims.

"I like you, you're interesting- and funny" he said. The snivy fumed angrily.

"I AM NOT JOKING AND THIS IS NOT FUNNY!" the grass-type snapped. It then proceeded to close its eyes and shake its head, murmuring "I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming…"

"You're certainly not dreaming, cause I'm totally real" The pichu said. The Snivy finally groaned and said "Shock me!"

The pichu wasn't very sure if it should do so, but did as was told when it saw the serious look on the snivy's face. He let out a small electric shock that jolted the snivy back a few paces.

"There, are you convinced?" he asked.

"Nope, I'm not dreaming" The snivy grumbled. The pichu giggled again.

"Are you really secretly a human?" he asked curiously. "They're only really myth and tales here."

"I believe so- that is, before I SOMEHOW APPEARED IN ANOTHER FREAKIN DIMENSION" the snivy answered.

Suddenly a loud voice called "The Dungeon Exploration Team registration is beginning! All Pokémon willing to join the team, please arrive at the central DET lodge in Acrinom town ASAP! I repeat! The Dungeon Exploration team registration is beginning! All Pokémon willing…."

The snivy and pichu looked up to see a pelipper soar by, shouting at the top of his voice.

"What's that?" the snivy asked.

The pichu was so excited that sparks were buzzing from its cheeks and flying everywhere.

"it's the Dungeon Exploration team! Well, it's more like a club but the all the Pokémon in it are a big team even though they're actually all separated into individual teams too, which go off on exciting missions and explore tons of amazing places!"It cried, "And, and…"

"Wow, calm down" the snivy said. The pichu was obviously a very big fan of the Dungeon Exploration team.

"And snivy, I _need_ to register!" the little electric-type finished. He was now jumping around, electricity sparking even more wildly than before.

"Hey, chill. Also, my name is _not_ Snivy. You don't call people after what they are" the snivy said.

"Yeah, but we're not people" the pichu pointed out.

"Fine, you don't call _Pokémon_ after what they are. Like, you wouldn't call a ratatta "ratatta" or a human "human". Besides, wouldn't that get confusing?" the Snivy tried to explain. The pichu looked mildly confused.

"Yes you would, why not? Sometimes there are two, but in that case you call them by nicknames. You're only ever called your nickname by Pokémon you know or if you're really famous or something. For strangers, it's just whatever Pokémon they or you are that they/you are called by. Sometimes, a Pokémon will even decide to not have a nickname at all and only be called what it is. It's common manners. Didn't you know that?" he said.

The snivy blinked in befuddlement, trying to let the information to sink in. _It must be how it works for Pokémon, I'd better get used to it_ she thought.

"Well, do you want to call me by my nickname?" The pichu asked.

"Uh, yeah, I think that'll be much easier for me" she replied.

"Ok then, from now on, you can call me Spark!" the pichu announced. "What's your nickname?"

"my _name_ " she corrected, "It's….it's…." Spark cocked his head in confusion.

"Don't you remember your own name?" he asked.

"Well…..now that I think of it, I didn't really have a name" she said. The pichu was absolutely astounded by the information.

"How do you live without a name? You friends and family have to call you something right? You sure are weird" Spark said.

"I don't know, I was just called 'Thief' or 'That annoying street kid'…" the snivy trailed.

"Why would they call you that?" Spark asked.

"Uh…..well…." she gulped. She didn't think Spark would react very well if he knew he was talking to a thief.

"That's strange, well why don't I give you a name then?" Spark offered.

"Ok…" the snivy shrugged.

"Yay!" he squealed. Spark closed his eyes and thought for a while.

"How about Snivine?" he suggested.

"What?!" the snivy cried, "That's a hideous name! Who'd be called that?"

"What do you mean? There's nothing wrong with being called something like Snivine. Snivy plus vine equals Snivine! Pretty cool actually" Spark said.

"People don't call themselves that! Names are more like 'Lucy', 'Jack', 'Bella', stuff like that" she said. Now it was Spark's turn to be shocked.

"What kinds of names are those? Sounds pretty inventive. Wait, do humans call each other stuff like that?" Spark asked.

"Yeah"

"Well, you're a Pokémon in a Pokémon world- for now at least-, and that's not what Pokémon call themselves. You don't have any other name to go with" Spark said. The snivy sighed.

"I guess so. I'm probably gonna have to get used to being called 'Snivine' then" she grumbled.

"Yay! I can tell everyone that I picked the name for you!" Spark squeaked.

"Um, I'd rather you don't…" Snivine said.

"All Pokémon wishing to join the Dungeon Exploration team, please gather at the central DET lodge now as the registrations are about to begin!" the same pelipper from before called from somewhere above.

"Oh no! I need to get to Acrinom or I won't be able to join! I've waited all year for this and now I'm going to be late!" Spark cried in panic.

"Well what are you waiting for?" Snivine asked.

"Well… I was on my way, but then I just found you lying there in the middle of Serene Forest, I couldn't just leave you there… I'm really nervous about it and I'll be all alone because I don't really have anyone else to go with, so…. Um, well…. Could you perhaps… well, go with me? I'm sorry! I know I'm being a real scaredy-pichu and all but please, please, please I just…" Spark mumbled.

"Wait, hold on a second. I just appeared in another dimension as a totally different being and _you expect me to go join some exploration club with you?!_ " Snivine yelled.

"I-I'm sorry, but I'm just really nervous about it, and I don't have anyone else left…"

"What do you mean? Where are your parents anyway? Did they agree to this?"

Spark suddenly went quiet and tears began to appear in his eyes.

"I… I don't know" Spark whispered.

"Oh…. Sorry" Snivine said quietly. It really was shocking to be transported into another dimension, but she hadn't meant to offend him.

"It's ok, I'm sorry I tried to get you to join a stupid exploration club with me just because I was nervous. You should probably go find out why you got here first…. I can just help you settle in perhaps, then we can all go our separate ways" the pichu sniffled.

"True" Snivine said, making Spark's ears droop a little in disappointment, "But I guess I don't have anywhere else to go- now that I think of it-, Besides, I do have a feeling joining that exploration club's going to help me uncover a lot of answers about what happened anyway".

Spark was once again so excited that he bounded around Snivine before giving her a big hug.

"REALLY?! THANKYOU, THANKYOU, THANKYOU, THANKYOU, THANKYOU! OH WE COULD EVEN FORM A TEAM TOGETHER AND GO ON TONS OF EXCITING ADVENTURES! Wait, can we from a team and go on lots of fun adventures together?" Spark squealed.

Snivine smiled. "Of course, I guess so" she replied.

Spark squealed even more before Snivine stopped him to remind him of the fact that they still needed to get to Acrinom. Spark stopped immediately and hurriedly continued on the way, dragging Snivine behind.

When they finally emerged from the last stand of trees to arrive at Acrinom town, the duo was greeted by a huge swarm of Pokémon everywhere. There were bustling stores selling a variety of different items and foods, a small park/playground surrounding a lovely shining waterfall, many different houses, a small lodge for passing travellers, a giant billboard with news, ads and other bits and pieces and finally, a big grand building with DET imprinted on the board stuck on the front. Also stuck on the front, just above the doors was a huge plank of wood covered in the paw-prints of hundreds of different Pokémon, presumably all the Pokémon that had joined the DET team. Some were huge, some were tiny, some had claws, others were blobby, some were as elusive as the ghostly paws that painted them were, some didn't seem to have hands at all and so used some other body part instead and others were so strange that no one really even knew where or who it came from.

In front of the building was a huge crowd full of a variety of different Pokémon all huddled together to witness or participate in the welcoming of new DET members. A dwebble scribbled names and notes on a roll of paper by the side.

Spark and Snivine arrived just as an excited helioptile pressed its claws onto the big board of prints above the door (by climbing up a small set of stairs placed next to the board for the occasion). The crowd cheered as an ampharos presented a badge and scarf to the little helioptile, who bowed his head in honour and tied the scarf around his neck before sticking the badge on.

"Welcome, Helioptile, to the proud team of Dungeon Explorers! We hope you have many good times as you help us uncover more mysteries about the mysterious mystery dungeons!" the Ampharos announced. There was another round of applause before the Ampharos gestured for all the new DET members standing in a line behind him to step forwards.

"Let us welcome the new mystery dungeon explor-" Ampharos began.

"WAIT! WE WANT TO JOIN THE DUNGEON EXPLORATION TEAM!" a voice shouted. All the Pokémon turned to look at Spark and Snivine as they raced towards the gathering.

"You didn't have to make such a big entrance!" Snivine hissed.

"Well, they're not gonna hear us any other way!" Spark replied.

There was an invisible spotlight on them as they arrived in front of the ampharos, panting.

"Hi, we'd like to… join your… exploration team… please…"Spark gasped.

"Uh well… you guys are a little late, but I guess we could squish you in. You didn't hear the introduction to the Dungeon Exploration team so I'll just have to speak to you guys later. For now, you can just perform the official registration procedures ok?" Ampharos said.

"Yep! I'm totally fine with that!" the pichu squeaked.

"I'm okay with that, sorry for the trouble though" Snivine said.

Ampharos cleared his throat and said to the crowd "I'm sorry everyone, but there's just two more Pokémon willing to join us today first". He then turned to Spark and Snivine.

"Who's going first?" he asked.

"Me, me, me!"Spark squealed. Snivine shrugged and nudged him forwards.

"Well then, come and stand here in front of me pichu" Ampharos said. Spark excitedly bounded in place, eager to start.

"Pichu, are you truly willing to join our team, exploring many amazing but potentially dangerous places?" Ampharos asked.

"Yes!" Spark replied.

"I will warn you that many missions _will_ be life-threatening. There are still lots of mysteries we've yet to uncover and still very little known about these dungeons. You will have to be prepared for _anything_. Are you still sure?"

"Yes!" the pichu replied again.

"Then, welcome to the team!" Ampharos cried. There was a chorus of small cheers as Ampharos gestured for Spark to dip his paw into the small pond in front of the DET lodge. A tiny excited blast of electricity sparked from both his cheeks as he plunged his right paw into the softly swirling water. When Spark took his paw out, it was covered in what seemed like some sort of faintly glittering blue paint, except noticeably more transparent than usual.

"Go on, climb those stairs and just press your paw anywhere on the board" Ampharos said in Spark's ears gently as the pichu stared at his paw in awe.

Spark nodded and clambered up the stairs excitedly. When he reached the top, Spark found a small patch not imprinted with any other prints and pressed his paw onto it. His paw glowed a brilliant blue, then faded to its original status. When Spark took his paw off, a glittering blue paw print was in the place of where his paw had been, shining with the same radiance of his paw before pressing the board.

"The water of the spring has taken a trace of your aura with it onto the board, so your existence here shall never be forgotten" Ampharos said to Spark after he climbed back down.

Ampharos then turned around and whispered "Dwebble! We need the badge table back!"

The dwebble which had just been heaving the table away sighed as he heard the request. With a grumble, he turned the table around and began heaving it back again with surprising strength.

"Thank you Dwebble" Ampharos whispered when Dwebble finally shoved the table into position. The little Pokémon clattered something that sounded like a "You're welcome" before crawling away.

Ampharos then took a scarf and badge from the piles on the table and turned to Spark. Snivine could tell that the pichu was doing all it could to not grin or hop with joy, though however hard he tried, those few sparks still sparked crazily from his cheeks. After taking a deep breath, Spark looked Ampharos in the eye and bowed as calmly as he could. Ampharos smiled and presented Spark with his badge and scarf. With a little squeal of delight, Spark took the items, tying the scarf around his neck and pinning the badge on.

"Congratulations Pichu, you are now officially a mystery dungeon explorer!" Ampharos said.

"Yay! I'm actually a DET member! I can't believe it!" Spark squealed.

"Now just wait there with the others as we register your friend" Ampharos said, pointing at the line of other new members. Spark nodded and bounded over, grinning hugely.

Ampharos then turned to Snivine.

"Are you ready to begin your registration?" he asked. Snivine nodded. Ampharos repeated the questions he asked Sparky, all of which Snivine agreed to. After imprinting her hand, or leaf, next to Spark's and receiving her scarf and badge, Snivine joined the other new members and stepped forwards.

"Let us welcome the new mystery dungeon explorers!" Ampharos announced. The whole crowd of Pokémon cheered, some as older DET members and others as spectators.

"Don't kill yourself Zippy! I am so proud of you my little helioptile!" A heliolisk called from the crowd. Zippy, the helioptile, blushed a deep red in embarrassment and a few Pokémon giggled quietly.

After the applause, Ampharos guided the new DET members inside and the crowd scattered as any older DET members followed them inside and any other Pokémon left.

Behind the doors was a small hallway leading to a large, spacious common room. On one wall was a big board with all recent reports, missions and tasks stuck on it. Right next to the big board was the front desk, where a minccino wearing a pair of glasses sat, reading a book. She didn't seem to realise the new dungeon explorers had just arrived until Ampharos tapped her on the shoulder. Minccino looked up and gasped when she realised what had happened.

"Oh my! I'm so sorry Ampharos I was just reading and… oh lord I'm so sorry!" she cried, falling off her stool and crashing onto the ground, knocking her glasses off. Zippy, who happened to be closest to Minccino's book and glasses picked them up and handed them to Minccino as she got up again.

"Oh thanks! Sorry about everything! I can be so clumsy and disorganised sometimes" Minccino said as she took her book and hurriedly put her glasses on up-side down.

"Um, it's ok. Also, your glasses are up-side down" Zippy pointed out. Minccino blushed in embarrassment and turned them the right way up again, laughing at her own silly mistake. Zippy smiled goofily as she laughed. For some reason, Minccino's clumsiness and laughing made the little helioptile feel happy and warm inside.

"Anyway, I suppose I have to show you new guys around and go through some info about how everything works, though I'm sure the older DET members would help you anytime if you forget again" Minccino said, turning to the group of new explorers. Ampharos nodded in approval.

"I need to check on something now, but I'm sure you'll all be able to meet me later. I think Minccino can introduce me for you anyway, so bye for now" he said. "I was going to talk with you two about what you didn't hear, but you'll have to ask Minccino about that" Ampharos then said just to Snivine and Spark before leaving from the front doors.

"Well then! Let's get started! I'm Minccino and I work at the front desk. If you're going on a task, then just talk to me so that I can record the fact that you and your team are gone, where you've gone and what task you've gone to do because we need to make sure we know exactly where everyone is or else everything would be all over the place! The missions are all on that big board over there. Those are mainly small tasks, so do them in your free time cause usually you'll be assigned a mission by Ampharos or I. Any questions?" Minccino explained.

The new explorers shook their heads.

"Ok , that's great! Also, this is only the central lodge, or the main DET lodge. There are many other lodges scattered across the land too and they'll all have a front desk, mission board and rooms from DET members which you can all use at any time! We all communicate by sending messages from lodge to lodge. Anyway, I'd better explain one of the most important parts of DET- teams! Here, we're all split into teams that go on all missions together. Teams usually have a minimum of two Pokémon with one main team leader, and you can give your team a name too! And don't forget the rank! On the board over at that wall opposite the mission board is the ranking board! Teams can get points from completing tasks and missions, and this board ranks all the teams depending on how many points they've got! Right now, the top team is the Fieryheart team, followed closely by the Shinygleam team! It's just for fun though, so don't get too serious about it. There are even special awards too! We award them to teams at the annual gatherings" Minccino continued. "I bet you're all super excited to get started, so I'll let the teams all introduce themselves. You guys can join any of these current eleven teams, though the other two are away for now, or start your own, but make sure you tell me what your decision is so I can record it."

All the Pokémon immediately chatting excitedly about what team they're going to try join, or what team they're going to start.

"Wow, that's a lot of new stuff to take in…. so many talking Pokémon…" Snivine said.

"Yeah, but it's awesome! I can't wait to meet all the teams, make our own team, get started, go on a super dangerous adventure, come out alive, be first place on the score board…." Spark went on, almost fainting from the overwhelming excitement.

"Hey, don't get too excited, you won't be able to hear the teams introduce themselves _or_ go on any adventure if you faint" Snivine said, tapping Spark on the head.

"Yeah, but I just can't believe we're actually gonna make our own team now… and, and everything!" the pichu squealed.

The Fieryheart team was the first to introduce themselves. There was an arcanine, dewott, krokorok, braviary and eelektrik standing proudly at the front of the large group of Pokémon.

"Hey new explorers, we're the Fieryheart team and, as you may have figured out, the team currently in first place on the board" the dewott said.

"And so obviously the best!" the krokorok butted in, earning him a glare from Dewott. Krokorok burst into laughter before apologising "Sorry, just kidding! But really, join our group, we're awesome."

Krokorok yelped loudly as the arcanine nipped the cheeky ground-type on the tail.

"Don't mind him" Arcanine growled. "We're one of the oldest teams here, but we get new members every now and then, so it would be great if any of you guys could join. We'll all be willing to accept new members any time!"

"Yep, we're all really nice, so don't worry. You're promised tons of amazing adventures!" the eelektrik assured.

"So yeah, join us and let's GO TEAM FIERYHEART!" the braviary yelled.

There was a small round of applause as team Fieryheart re-joined the crowd. Meanwhile, another team of Pokémon nodded their heads in agreement before walking forwards to introduce themselves next. They didn't seem to like the Fieryheart team very much, glaring at them as they walked. The Fieryhearts simply looked away at their gaze.

"Let me make a point before we introduce ourselves" the floette said. "Don't let those Fieryhearts' status as first place fool you, cause we totally deserve it. Maybe they're number one on points, but make sure you remember that we're number one on well, just about everything else." The Floette then smiled sweetly and twirled her flower a couple of times, making Spark and Snivine unsure of whether she was joking or not.

"Ok, now onto introducing ourselves. We, are the Shinygleam team, Cranidos, Blitzel, Mienfoo, Leafeon and I- Floette. It would be nice to have some new members I guess, and I can already see that some of you have lots of potential, but we'll invite you if we think you're really a Shinygleam" Floette said.

"If you do get in though, be proud, because that means you're a part of the coolest group ever!" Cranidos rumbled.

"Yes, and I think you can already see why we're named the Shinygleam team" Floette said.

"Floette's a shiny!" Spark cried.

"Yeah, and so is Leafeon!" Snivine added. If they concentrated enough, a faint glittering aura could be seen around the two Pokémon.

"Well then, I hope you all behave yourselves, and hopefully you'll even get to join us" Floette finished.

Their speech left many of the new explorers quite confused and cautious. After a few moments of murmuring among the Pokémon, the remaining eleven teams introduced themselves.

"I can't wait to see which teams you all join, or your new teams if you decide to make one!" Minccino said to all the new Pokémon afterwards. "Now you can just wander around for a bit, getting to know everyone! Ampharos should come back soon so he can go through some basic skills and all with you. We can't have new members doing the more dangerous missions just yet, so we have some good beginner dungeons to train in."

"This is so exciting!" Spark squealed. "I want to get to know all the teams, everyone and everything!"

"Yeah, but who's that charmeleon over there?" Snivine asked. Over in the corner or the room, a charmeleon watched everyone quietly as they chattered.

"Hey, if he doesn't have a team, then maybe we can be a team with him!" Spark said.

"Wait!" Snivine yelled, but the little pichu was already running over to the charmeleon excitedly.

"Hi, what team are you in?" Spark asked. The charmeleon looked at the pichu curiously, then replied "I don't have one."

"Oh, why not? Could me and my friend be a team with you? That would be awesome!"

"I work alone" Charmeleon growled. He then turned and left the common room silently.

"Wow, well he sure doesn't look very bright" Snivine commented, coming up behind Spark.

"Don't worry, maybe it just isn't his day. I'm sure he'll be a lot better tomorrow though" Spark said brightly.

"I'm not very sure about that" Snivine replied.

"Hey, you new here?" Luxio asked, making Spark and Snivine jump in surprise.

"Who are you?" Spark asked.

"Luxio, from team Infinity, remember?" Luxio said.

"Oh yeah! You!" Spark cried.

"Yup. I just wanted to tell you two not to mind him"

"The charmeleon?" Snivine asked.

"Yeah, I'm not very sure why he's so dark and private-ish, but don't let that fire-type make you gloomy. Charmeleon's just a lone worker. Just leave him alone and you'll be fine" Luxio said.

"Oh, ok. Thanks Luxio" Snivine said.

"No problem, I'll be happy to show you around anytime you get lost if you need to too" Luxio offered.

"Wow, that would be awesome! Thanks!" Spark squeaked.

"No need, I enjoy showing new Pokémon around. Anyway, which team are you hoping to join?" Luxio asked.

"Actually, we're going to make our very own team!" Spark said.

"That sounds awesome! What are you going to call it?" Luxio said.

Spark looked at Snivine, who shrugged.

"We don't know yet, but we'll work it out" Spark replied.

"I have a feeling you two have a lot of exciting adventures ahead. Well, I gotta go now, but good luck! And remember, I'll always be happy to show you around!" Luxio said before returning to his team.

"I wonder what's wrong with that charmeleon" Snivine said.

"Luxio told us not to worry about it, remember?" Spark assured.

"Yeah, but still…. "

"Come on! Let's go meet some other Pokémon and explore the lodge!" Spark squealed, racing off again.

Snivine sighed. "Spark! Wait up!" she yelled.

The hyper pichu was already zipping around to various Pokémon and making small conversations with them.

'Wow, I really wonder how he does that' Snivine thought. Spark was zipping so fast it was almost as if he was teleporting.

After a while, everyone had gotten to know each other and most of the new Pokémon had already either joined a team or created their own, so now they were just waiting for Ampharos to return. Out of their boredom, Camerupt and Braviary even started a battle in the middle of the room.

"I might make my own team, but I was really hoping to join team Volt too" a new gligar was saying to Spark and Snivine.

"Cool! Me and Snivy are going to make a team together!" Spark said.

"Oh, that sounds amazing!" Gligar commented.

"Uh, my name is-"Snivine began, but stopped herself when she remembered the names rule Spark had explained to her earlier.

"Does anyone know where Ampharos went?" she asked instead. Spark and Gligar stopped to think for a while.

"Yeah, he's really taking quite a while" Gligar said.

"Maybe we should ask Minccino, she should know" Spark suggested. The Pokémon nodded in agreement.

They found Minccino looking at the clock and glancing at the Pokémon in the common room worriedly.

"Hi Minccino!" Spark said.

"Oh, hi! How can I help you?" she stuttered, breaking from her trance of thoughts.

"Well, we were just wondering if you knew where Ampharos went" Gligar said.

"To be honest… I don't really know. I've been wondering the same thing. Ampharos usually isn't this late and he should be here by now. Introducing the new members are one of the most important things to him…. He's never missed an introduction like this before!" Minccino mumbled.

"Oh no…" Spark whispered.

"It's ok, I'll just check the lodge and some places he usually goes nearby. Don't worry, just make sure everyone stays here ok?" Minccino decided.

They nodded. Minccino sighed and ran off into the lodge.

"I hope she finds Ampharos" Snivine said, though she had a foreboding feeling that something horrible had happened to Ampharos. Someone like him wouldn't just be late like this for any little reason.

"I'm going to watch the battle" Gligar said.

"Ooo! That sounds exciting! Wanna watch the battle Snivine?" Spark squealed, excited once again.

"Umm, ok" Snivine mumbled. She hadn't really seen many Pokémon battles before, and most Pokémon were from the police who chased her and used moves so they could catch her.

"Come on!" Spark shouted, grabbing Snivine by her neck-leaf.

"Hey! That hurts!" she yelled.

* * *

"Why are you staying so high up little birdie? Scared of my ground moves?" Camerupt rumbled.

"Oh you're gonna pay for ever messing with me!" Braviary screeched back, before diving for a wing attack. Meanwhile, Camerupt prepared a lava plume. Sparks flew everywhere as the two attacks clashed.

"You think a little fire's gonna stop me?" Braviary roared. "THINK AGAIN!" Braviary continued to use its wing attack even through the lava plume and dived right through it, hitting Camperupt on the full. Camerupt stumbled back from the force, but Braviary had also taken some considerate damage from Camerupt's lava plume.

The two Pokémon were about to charge up another attack when Minccino entered the room, pale and more worried than ever.

"A-am…. Ampharos…" she stuttered. All the Pokémon looked at her.

"What is it?" Snivine asked, but she already knew what the reply would be.

"Ampharos is gone!"


	3. Chapter 2(UN-UPDATED)

"What?!" Snivine cried.

"I checked in the lodge, in the town, then on the outskirts of town. I didn't dare go too far because of the mysterious incidents that have been reported lately, but under an overhang where there seemed to be a landslide or battle…. I found this" Minccino reported to everyone. In her paw was a beautiful band or necklace made out of some kind of white vine with a tiny star-shaped crystal embedded in the middle.

"What is that?" Spark asked curiously.

"Ampharos's" Minccino replied. "I'm not very sure what it is exactly, but I know that it was very precious to Ampharos as he almost always had it tied around his neck."

"He must have dropped it while whatever happened there happened" Snivine said quietly. "I knew something horrible had happened…"

"You did?!" Minccino cried. All the Pokémon turned their attention towards Snivine.

"N-not really…. I don't know, I just felt something wrong in the land… nothing much" she stuttered. Everyone gets foreboding feelings, right?

Minccino sighed and put her head in her paws. "Oh who knows what might have happened?!" she mumbled. This got the other Pokémon going and they immediately began to murmur worriedly about Ampharos's mysterious disappearance.

"Where's Ampharos?!" some Pokémon cried.

"What do we do?" another squealed.

"Should we just wait here?" came a rumble.

"Maybe he just got lost?" someone whispered.

"Could we go after him?" went a call.

"No! It'll be too dangerous!" someone screeched.

The room that had once been filled with excitement only moments ago was now full of worried and confused Pokémon. All the while, one Pokémon stood in the shadows of the room, watching and listening. It may have been dangerous for the other Pokémon, but he knew that it didn't matter for him, as he owed the electric-type a life of rejection. He was ready to do anything to prove his worth as an outcast and return the favour.

Suddenly, Snivine saw a dark shape that looked awfully familiar dart out of the room from the corner of her eye.

"Was that…?" she whispered.

"What?" Spark asked. Snivine narrowed her eyes and slipped out of the crowd with Spark close behind her.

"Hey, Snivine! Where are you going?!" he asked.

"I just saw someone, darting out of the room" she replied.

"Who?"

"Well, I think I know already, but we're going to find out" she said, rushing out the hallway where she'd last seen the shape run through.

"Snivine! What are you doing?! Everyone's still in the common room, and we can't face that unknown danger alone! If it could bring down Ampharos, who knows what it could do to us?! Snivine?!" Spark yelled desperately. But Snivine just ignored him and burst through what seemed like the back door of the lodge. Not knowing what else to do, Spark hurriedly followed her outside.

"Ah ha! I knew it'd be him. Now we can finally find out what that little shadow had to hide so badly from the world" Snivine said with a sly smirk.

"What do you mean?!" Spark cried as caught up to Snivine.

"Look, at who's sneaking around those boulders over there" she said, gesturing with her hand leaf. Behind the DET lodge was a landscape of hills, mountains and cliffs, and slinking by the boulders that lay just before the first rocky hill was the strange charmeleon from before.

"Charmeleon? What's he doing here?" Spark whispered once he noticed the mysterious Pokémon.

"Well let's find out. I have a feeling he has some kind of connection with Ampharos's disappearance" Snivine hissed back.

"And how are you going to do that? He's going to hear us! And then Arceus knows what he'll do with us!" Spark whispered lowly, now paranoid that the charmeleon would hear them.

"Let's just say I have quite a bit of practice doing this kind of sneaking stuff, just follow me" she said. Snivine wasn't sure how he'd react if she told him she'd stolen the rich Willow family's giant birthday cake, so she postponed it for later. The snivy then slipped up behind a tree with surprising stealth and beckoned for Spark to follow.

Spark gulped, then tiptoed wobbly up to the tree, sweat forming on his forehead.

"Do we have to follow him?" he asked.

"Yes, unless you want to wait helplessly with the others" she replied. Spark shook his head.

"Then stop complaining and come on!"

After looking around to see if he'd been followed, Charmeleon scrambled up the boulders ran into the rocky terrain beyond.

Snivine and Spark darted from one hiding place to another, following the charmeleon as he went. He was harder to follow than most other people and Pokémon Snivine had sneaked up on before, so Charmeleon must have had a decent amount of agility. The trees were gradually getting scarcer, being replaced with boulders, rock and little cave openings every now and then.

After a while, Charmeleon reached down to inspect the dirt, and Snivine realised that this was the overhang Minccino had described before. Mounds of rock and earth lay at the bottom of the overhang, and there was a deep impression on the wall of rock on the other side. Zigzags of charred earth were marked everywhere, probably left by powerful bolts of electricity or fire. It was a tiny ravine, perfect for ambushing unwary Pokémon passing by. But if this was where Ampharos had fallen, then he had put up quite a fight. There were even a few drops of blood-Snivine just hoped it wasn't Ampharos's.

Spark huddled closer to Snivine as he saw the blood.

"I don't like this Snivine… it's scary…" he whispered.

'It's ok, once we find out what Charmeleon's doing and what's happened to Ampharos, we can leave and go back to the lodge" Snivine whispered back. _But now, it's time to confront him_ she thought.

"I'm going to confront him now" Snivine said to Spark.

"What?! Why are you revealing yourself to him?!" he squealed.

"Stay here then, if you want, but this is a good time to ask him" Snivine said, then ran out from behind the fallen log they'd been hiding behind.

"Snivine!" Spark cried.

"What are you doing here?" she yelled. Charmeleon jumped and turned around in surprise. Preferring not to get into the conflict, Spark stayed back a few paces from the two Pokémon.

"What are _you_ doing here then, may I ask?" he growled.

"Following you and finding out why you're always so sneaky everywhere. Does Ampharos's disappearance have something to do with you?" Snivine said.

"Go back to the lodge! It's dangerous for you here, and you should mind your own business" Charmeleon replied.

"No! I'm not gonna just sit around while who-knows-what is happening to Ampharos! Besides, you do notice how suspicious you look, silently slipping out of the room like that don't you?" Snivine shouted back. She narrowed her eyes at the Charmeleon as he did the same. Their tension was so fierce, that you could almost see electricity buzzing between them.

"Guys! Look!" Spark suddenly yelled. Snivine and Charmeleon both turned their attention to the pichu, who was pointing at something in the distance.

"What is it?" Snivine asked as they ran over to where Spark stood.

"I don't know…. Look!" he said. In a pile of rubble in the distance was the glint of some kind of red gem. Whatever it belonged to seemed to sense their gaze and moved, shifting the rocks to reveal… Ampharos's head.

The Pokémon gasped. Ampharos seemed exhausted, scratches and wounds covered his head and he seemed to be barely breathing.

"Ampharos!" Spark, Snivine and Charmeleon cried. The trio rushed over to Ampharos in shock and glee.

"He's been drained…" Spark whispered.

"Drained?" Snivine asked.

"Oh, I forgot… you don't know about what's been happening lately do you?"

"N-no….." Snivine said. Spark closed his eyes and breathed deeply a few times.

"Lately, there have been reports of Pokémon mysteriously being drained of their power, as in they can't use any moves or attacks anymore-all over the land. Nobody really knows how it happens or who is doing it, but the victims are often just found lying on the ground either unconscious, severely hurt or sometimes even, even dead. Afterwards, they all describe the drainers as figures…. Shrouded with a cloak, or mask….. and then…. And then…." Spark sniffed again and took another deep breath. "And then they just come out of nowhere… thrust their hands or claws onto the victim's chest…. And their hands glow, red before…. Before…" Spark sniffed again, but Snivine could already see the tiny tears in his eyes.

"W-was that what happened…. To you parents?" she asked quietly. Spark nodded.

"We were just on a walk through the forest when, when they just came…. They fought to protect me…. And so I was able to escape but….but….they…" Spark whispered before bursting into tears. "I don't even know what happened to them! When we went back to search, we found my mother….. d-dead… and dad was, just, just gone!"

"Oh…." Snivine gasped.

"That was also one of the reasons I wanted to join the Dungeon Exploration Team…. I mean, of course I want to have fun, but I also have to find, find out why, seek the truth!" Spark said.

"Well, why don't we call our new team that? Seekers of Truth!" Snivine announced brightly. "What do you think?" Spark nodded and turned to the pile of rubble, he obviously didn't want to talk about the subject any further, so Snivine left it and concentrated on the task at hand.

Once they reached the pile of rubble, they were able to see much more clearly just how serious his wounds were. Ampharos opened one of his eyes slightly and managed a weak smile. The once strong and proud electric-type's skin was battered by dirt and dust, and his bright head gem was now pale and dull.

"S-s-snivy…. I-in… Inferno…." Ampharos whispered with a shuddering breath.

"No! Don't try to talk Ampharos! You have to save your energy... I'm sorry… It's all my fault" Charmeleon said, desperately digging Ampharos out from the rubble as quickly as he could.

"Who's Inferno?" Spark asked.

"Me" Charmeleon answered. Spark let out a little gasp, then quickly began helping Charmeleon uncover Ampharos.

"I don't usually accept help so don't get used to it" Inferno added, just for clarification. Spark would have usually asked why, but he could see that it was a grave situation right now, so kept his mouth shut.

Snivine was about to help them when she got an unsettling feeling, the feeling that someone- no, some Pokémon- were nearby, watching, waiting.

"What's wrong Snivine? Come on, help us with Ampharos!" Spark called.

Snivine tried to shake it off, but the strange feeling wouldn't go away. There were pokémon out there, quite a few, she could just feel their presence in the energy of the land… She knew she was supposed to quickly help Ampharos, but the snivy stayed still, trying to understand the overwhelming sensation.

Suddenly, one of the Pokémon moved. Snivine just felt it, and knew. He or She was dashing towards them at an alarming speed-targeted at their smallest member.

"SPARK!" Snivine yelled before she had time to ponder about how in the world she was sensing all of it.

The little pichu looked around just as a figure leapt out from somewhere above and pinned Spark to the ground. Inferno and Ampharos, who was now free, swivelled around at the sound of Spark's squeal and gasped.

"What are you doing here again?!" Ampharos roared, ripping himself free of Inferno's grip. The cloaked pokémon giggled as the rest of her team jumped down, surrounding the small group.

"Oh, well it seems like you brought a couple of friends! How nice of you" the first Pokémon, presumably the leader, said, pulling down her cloak only to reveal a mask. Snivine made a move to snatch Spark back, but froze in her tracks when the first masked Pokémon hissed "I wouldn't take another step if I were you, cause I can send this little guy on a free trip to heaven if draining him isn't good enough for you."

Spark's face was pale and he shuddered in terror. All of them stayed still, beads of sweat forming on their heads.

"That's better, now just let us drain you and everyone can leave unharmed. Easy!" the first Pokémon said.

"Give. Pichu. Back. And. Leave" Inferno growled through clenched teeth.

"Ah, why it's Inferno! How's life as an explorer going old friend?" the masked Pokémon cooed.

"What did you find in the treasure box? A skitty plushie?" one of the cloaked Pokémon sneered.

"That would be a perfect find! You know why? Cause you're a little skitty and types of a kind flock together don't they?" another taunted. The cloaked Pokémon all roared with laughter.

"They know you?!" Snivine hissed to Inferno. The charmeleon closed his eyes and looked away.

"Ooo! They don't even know about who you really are yet! What a little traitor, Inferno! After all this time, you still are one of us, and you always will be!" the masked Pokémon said, delighted at having found another weak spot on Inferno.

"What?!" Snivy and Spark cried. Inferno was so infuriated that smoke was steaming out from his clenched mouth.

"Why did you leave? I've always wondered that, since nothing is the same without you. We miss you Inferno, we need you!" the first Pokémon said.

"You know very well why I left. I will never forgive myself for having anything to do with you!" Inferno snarled.

"Tut, tut, tut. Too bad you're not on the team anymore, but I'm sure you'll come to your senses soon enough"

"NEVER! I will never be loyal to that corrupted monster again!" Inferno roared.

"That's all too bad then" the masked Pokémon said sadly. "Cause then we have no choice but to bring you and your friends to your ends." With a wicked grin, the masked Pokémon tapped her foot and pointed towards the surrounded victims.

In a flash, the cloaked Pokémon all dashed towards the small team while the leading masked Pokémon tightened his grip on Spark, making him gasp for air.

"WAIT! NO! If you're going to drain us, then at least spare our lives!" Inferno yelled. The masked Pokémon held up a paw, and her attacking group paused.

"Hmm, perhaps" she considered. "But I'm afraid _you_ for one already know way too much."

"W-what does… that mean…?" Ampharos asked, gasping with the effort. The masked Pokémon giggled and said "You'll find out soon enough". She then turned to the other cloaked Pokémon. "Drain- and end the charmeleon" she ordered. With a flick of the masked pokémon's claw, they resumed the attack.

Inferno, Snivine and even Ampharos prepared for battle.

"Don't bother fight" the masked Pokémon said. "It's eight of us against three of you, and oh did I forget? One is severely injured and can't use any moves, how sad." With that, she thrust Spark into the rock wall of the mini canyon and prepared to drain him.

"No!" Snivine yelled, stepping back to charge at the masked Pokémon.

"Maybe you didn't hear, don't bother fighting, you'll regret it" she snarled. Snivine gave her a sly smile then said "Well that's good, cause I'm not doing any fighting."

The masked Pokémon seemed confused for a second before Snivine suddenly slipped out of sight. The leader of the drainers shook her head in utter bewilderment. _W-what? Where did that wretched little grass-type go?!_ She thought angrily.

Meanwhile, Inferno was doing his best to keep Ampharos safe while fending off Pokémon trying to drain him at the same time. The four cloaked Pokémon dashed around all over the place, trying to confuse the charmeleon.

"L-let me… help…" Ampharos said, stepping forwards.

"No! You can't battle Ampharos! I can take care of them myself!" Inferno shouted back. Ampharos grumbled and stepped back again.

"You know, it's so strange trying to battle you to death after how you've been on our side" one of the Pokémon said.

"Yeah…..but you deserved it!" another said, laughing.

"YOU WON'T BE LAUGHING AFTER THIS!" Inferno snarled. To their surprise, the charmeleon jumped into the middle of the four Pokémon as if he wanted them to surround him. They looked at each other and snickered, moving in. Just as they got close enough, Inferno flared all of them at once with a powerful fire spin then quickly used slash to neatly cut up all four pokémon's cloaks as well as leaving a series of long cuts.

Feeling awkward with their sudden complete exposure to the light, they flinched for a second in surprise. Inferno then took this chance to blast them with a flamethrower. The four Pokémon, now revealed to be a gliscor, boldore, croconaw and nidorino, glared at the charmeleon, their pride bruised.

"Now you are on" Boldore rumbled. Boldore, Croconaw and Nidorino all charged at Inferno all at once, making him dodge a horn attack and narrowly escape a rock slide before he was finally hit with a water gun from croconaw. Inferno stood up and prepared to battle again. Suddenly, the Pokémon stopped and smiled maliciously. There was something wrong….but Inferno didn't know what. Then it hit him- where did Gliscor go?

"Surrender and get drained or see Ampharos die before your eyes" a voice said behind him. Holding an X-scissor at Ampharos's throat was Gliscor, who'd slipped behind Inferno as the other three attacked. Inferno looked at the grinning Pokémon and growled. This was going to prove more difficult that he thought.

The masked Pokémon was beside herself with fury, as Snivine slipped in and out of her sight, getting closer every time she managed to spot her. The other three cloaked Pokémon had noticed the snivy and decided to focus on her, but every single attack they launched was dodged with ease.

 _It was about time my street life on the run skills came in handy_ Snivine thought as she twisted and turned past the cloaked Pokémon, dodging their every attack. The snivy was just too swift and fast for the Pokémon to have time to aim properly at all. Suddenly she came dashing right towards the masked Pokémon and Spark, having evaded all three pursuing Pokémon.

"Oh you're not getting your friend back that easily" the masked Pokémon hissed. She clenched Spark even more tightly and fired an icy wind at Snivine with her other paw. Snivine ducked and slipped away somewhere once again.

"I'll have Spark back thank you very much!"

In a flash, Snivine was tugging Spark free from the masked pokémon's grip.

"S-snivine!" Spark gasped, choking from the pokémon's grip.

"Don't worry, I'm getting you out of this drainer pokémon's dirty claws!" she reassured, and with a final tug wrestled him free from the masked Pokémon.

"Snivine!" Spark cried, clinging to her tightly.

"Are you ok?" she asked. Spark nodded.

"You little bastard! Just you wait till I get my draining paws on you!" the masked Pokémon screeched. Powered by fury, the masked Pokémon lunged at Snivine with incredible speed.

"Hang on!" Snivine said to Spark and dashed away with the pichu clinging onto her back. As she ran for her life, Snivine and Spark caught a glimpse of Inferno ferociously searing three other drainers with fire as Ampharos struggled himself out of a Gliscor's grasp.

"She's getting closer!" Spark squealed. "Snivine I'm scared!"

"Don't worry! We're gonna be fine!" Snivine yelled back.

Suddenly, the masked Pokémon disappeared from sight, making Snivine skid to a stop.

"Where did she go?" Spark asked. Snivine looked around for the masked Pokémon, but couldn't see her anywhere. Then she felt it, a presence somewhere above them.

Snivine shot away as the masked Pokémon leapt down form a ledge above.

"Snivine! You can't keep running like this!" Spark yelled.

"What do you mean?" she asked, barely dodging another icy wind.

"You have to attack Snivine!"

"But I don't know how to use any moves!"

"You have to or we'll never escape!" Spark shouted as the masked Pokémon dashed one pace closer to them. Spark was right, they could run and they might run faster, but they'd still be there, and they'd still get tired. She had to do something. But what? She didn't know how to do anything but run!

"Don't waste your energy little snivy! I gave you a chance to live, but you made your choice! Now you will suffer!" the masked Pokémon shrilled from behind with the other three cloaked Pokémon following from the sides.

 _I have to get to higher ground_ Snivine thought, and began running up the ledges of the ravine. Soon, she was on the ground above, the ravine steadily getting deeper and deeper as she ran.

"Down you go!" the masked Pokémon yelled, before crashing Snivine and Spark off the edge of ravine. The two Pokémon screamed as they fell, and fell…. And fell… and- stopped. Clinging onto the side of the ravine was Snivine's vines, instinctively outstretched to save them from certain death.

"YES! SNIVINE, YOU USED YOUR VINE WHIP!" Spark squealed in delight.

"I-I did it! Vine whip? I can't believe it! How did I…?!" Snivine cried.

"Celebrate now, cause it's not going to last! Oh, and the we're the Oblivion Wings by the way- remember the name!" the masked Pokémon sneered, stepping on one of the vines. Spark gasped and clung more tightly onto Snivine. With a laugh, the masked Pokémon took out her claws and slashed Snivine's vines, not enough to cut them, but enough to make her let go.

"No!" Snivine yelled. This time, it was certain, she couldn't use her vines and there was no other move she knew. The masked Pokémon laughed hysterically and the other three drainers jumped down the ravine, preparing to drain them.

Then a wind blew, a large strong wind with razor sharp leaves swirling around until it formed a giant tornado of leaves-with Snivine and Spark in the middle.

"HOW MANY TIMES CAN YOU CHEAT DEATH?!" the masked Pokémon screamed from above as the tornado grew larger, blowing the Oblivion Wings away and slamming them into the ravine walls. Even Gliscor, Nidorino, Boldore and Croconaw stopped attacking Inferno to brace themselves against the force. Inferno took the chance to drag Ampharos into the entrance of a small cave nearby as rocks tumbled down everywhere.

"PICHU! SNIVY! OVER HERE!" Inferno yelled. Slowly, the tornado dissipated and landed the two Pokémon safely on the ground. Snivine shook her head from the dizziness and ran towards the cave with Spark by her side.

Just then, an icy wind blew them into the side of the ravine and a masked figure stepped out of the dust.

"Miss me?" it asked, flexing its claws. Spark hugged Snivine, crying.

"I'm scared Snivine! I don't want to get drained!" he cried.

"I'm never going to let them drain you!" Snivine said, stepping in front of the pichu. Spark looked at the snivy through his teary eyes, it was almost like something his mother would say….

"Aww, how sweet" the masked Pokémon said as she charged up a metal claw.

"Snivy! Pichu!" Ampharos yelled, getting up to help them only to be tugged back down by Inferno.

"How can you live with yourself, just taking away innocent pokémon's power like that?" Snivine hissed.

"Hmm, maybe it's because empathy-for-random-pokémon doesn't apply to me" she replied, rushing forwards with her metal claw ready. Snivine took out her vines and blocked the attacks with them, but eventually got hit by one, which threw her tumbling back. The masked Pokémon laughed and charged up another icy wind as a boulder tumbled down towards Spark.

"Spark! Watch out!" Snivine shouted, leaping towards him. Arriving just in time, she crashed the boulder away with her vine whip, sending rock and dust flying everywhere. Quickly, Snivine pulled Spark away and bolted into the cave where Inferno and Ampharos waited.

The masked Pokémon was just about to chase after them into the cave when a barrage of rocks and boulders crashed down, sealing the entrance. The masked Pokémon let out a roar of fury as she bashed at the boulders blocking the entrance.

"I WILL REMEMBER THIS! THIS ISN'T OVER YET!" she screeched as the rest of the Oblivion Wings gathered at the blocked cave entrance.

Spark shuddered with every punch the infuriated Pokémon threw at the boulders.

 **Deserted Ruins**

 **1F**

"We'd better get going, before they get through" Spark said. They nodded and looked around. The cave wasn't completely dark, thanks to a few clusters of glowing crystals here and there.

"What kind of cave is this?" Snivine asked.

"I don't think it is a cave" Inferno said. "This must be a mystery dungeon."

"Mystery dungeon?" Snivine said in confusion.

"The mysterious dungeons and caves….that are...never the same each time….you enter them….nobody knows why, but…..that's….what the…Dungeon Exploration Team works to do" Ampharos said.

"Oh no! How are we going to find our way out again?! I haven't gone through a mystery dungeon before!" Spark cried.

With Inferno's help, Ampharos stood up and inspected the cave. "It's ok, I think this is…..one….of the easier and….more stable dungeons. Just stay….behind…me, do what I say and….we'll be fine…" he said, but collapsed on the ground again from the effort. Inferno shook his head.

"No Ampharos, you're too weak to lead or battle in the mystery dungeon. I'll do it" the charmeleon volunteered. With a sigh, Ampharos nodded and let Spark and Snivine support him as they began the trek.

There were so many wondrous things inside the mystery dungeon that Snivine and Spark had never seen before that they almost forgot about Ampharos's critical condition and the many unknown dangers they'd been warned about in the dungeon. There was an eerie silence of nothing but the pokémon's footsteps until Spark asked quietly "Why haven't we met any dungeon Pokémon yet?"

"There is a relatively low amount of dungeon Pokémon in this dungeon, as it's one of the smallest and oldest mystery dungeons here and there are annual floods that run through the ravine, flooding the mystery dungeon as well. We would use this as a training beginner dungeon if there weren't so many floods" Inferno explained. Having found a starting point for a conversation, Spark began asking question after question in fascination.

As Spark chatted to the increasingly irritated charmeleon, Ampharos looked up at Snivine and said "Snivy….my….necklace….."

"What?" she asked.

"Did….did they take it?"

"No, Minccino found it when she looked for you and brought it back to the lodge"

"Was the…..inside the….star capsule…?"

"What do you mean?"

"Inside the crystal star…I have to make sure….they don't get it"

"What are you talking about Ampharos?!" Snivine cried. Ampharos sighed, stopped to rest for a moment then continued.

"I lost my wife and children…..to those drainers. From then forth….I swore…to protect…Pokémon…..from being drained… So I walk around….the town borders…often to…chase off any….drainers and protect the…town. In the crystal….is a stone….my wife found. She thought…..it was pretty….so she gave it…to me…as a gift. It turns out….that it was…some kind of stone…that….let Pokémon….mega evolve, giving them…huge power. There's still…little known….about mega evolution….but I am….able to use it…..while I wear….the stone…" he said, gasping.

"Ampharos, you should res-" Snivine tried to say, but Ampharos continued talking anyway.

"We can't…We can't let them get their hands on it!" he managed to say, then fell to the floor, too weak to say anything more.

"Ampharos!" Snivine yelled. Inferno and Spark turned around and immediately ran over.

"We need to get him back to the lodge as soon as possible" Inferno said as he hauled Ampharos up. This was bad, it could take hours to finally find the exit to the ever changing mystery dungeon. If only they could just find the exit at the next turn…. Snivine hoped, trying to just visualise the cave exit, bright and beckoning, willing, just willing…..

"The exit!" Spark cried, snapping Snivine out of her thoughts. There, just around the bend was the exit, bright and beckoning…. Like she'd imagined, _willed_ for it to be….

"Come on Snivine! Snap out of it, we need to get back to the lodge, quick!" Spark yelled again. Snivine pushed the thoughts away and ran to help Inferno haul Ampharos outside as quickly as possible. The sun outside had dipped onto the horizon painting the sky beautiful, warm colours of red, orange, pink and even purple. Somewhere a bird Pokémon sang its evening song and the trees rustled as a soft breeze blew by as if welcoming or congratulating them, for they'd just clashed with the Oblivion Wings- and survived.

* * *

"You two can sleep here for the night" Minccino said as she showed Snivine and Spark to a cabin with the room number '14' carved on the front, "I've registered you as the 'Seekers of Truth' team and you can begin your DET preparation training tomorrow- since well, all this happened today."

"Thanks Minccino" Spark said. Minccino smile, and said "I should be thanking you, you two have done an incredible job for beginners. I don't know what might have happened to Ampharos or the Exploration team if you didn't do that…. I don't think there are even words to describe how thankful the whole team is of, of everything. On behalf of everyone, thank you."

"Don't forget Inferno, he played a big part in it too. We wouldn't have found Ampharos at all if it wasn't for him" Spark added.

"Inferno?"

"Charmeleon" Snivine said.

"Oh of course not! Has he decided to join you two? I'll need to record his name under your team if he finally did" Minccino said. Spark and Snivine looked at each other and shook their heads.

"I don't think so" Snivine answered.

"Oh, I was thinking he might have finally joined a team after all this time… Well, thank you all again and have a nice rest! Meet up in the common room next morning by nine thirty!" Minccino said before walking back down the hall again.

Once Minccino was out of sight, Spark immediately swung open the cabin door and rushed in excitedly. In the room was a large chest, one small window, a big stack of hay covered by a layer of soft moss and a lamp with a burning candle hanging from the ceiling.

After looking around for a bit, the two Pokémon settled down to sleep on the stack of hay that Snivine guessed was a pokémon's version of a bed.

Snivine was just about to drift off to sleep when Spark opened one eye and said "We're going to be together forever and ever right?" Snivine sat up, she was quite surprised by the statement, and thought about it for a moment.

"Uh…. Well…" Snivine mumbled. Suddenly, Spark lifted his head and looked at her with a serious expression.

"You have to promise me Snivine!" he said. After a moment of thought, Snivine smiled and said "I promise." Spark smiled back and relaxed. The next time Snivine looked at him, the pichu was fast asleep, his little ears twitching every now and then.

With a sigh, she lay down again and watched the stars through the window glowing bright in the night sky above as she drifted back to sleep.

* * *

 **Yay! I'm so happy I finished this chapter and I hope u liked it! OCs now open! Please tell me if you liked it or not and any suggestions! I'll be taking a little break now cause I've been writing ferociously for about 5 hours a day in the past few days and now I've finally gotten up to the point I'm been targeting to reach within at least 3 chapters! So now I'm going to relax from my extreme writing and take a while to just plan and think over things like what's going to happen next. Phew. With that said, hope you enjoyed the chapter and don't forget to review!**

 **Snivine out!**


	4. Chapter 3(UN-UPDATED)

**_:_ ? ? ? Unknown Location**

A large, dark figure let out a loud sigh as he finished absorbing the magical essence from a small gem that glowed dimly, then faded into a dark crimson red. He then threw the stone down into the paws of a much smaller figure, who scuttled away quickly.

"I can feel the power inside me, growing stronger... soon, soon they will stand no chance!" the large figure growled.

The loud pattering of many footsteps echoing off the cave walls told the figure that a group of Pokémon he'd been eagerly awaiting had arrived.

"What have you brought this time?" he asked as they came before him. The masked leader of the eight Pokémon stepped forwards and took out a glowing blue gem from under her cloak, presenting it to the looming figure. He smiled and took it from the pokémon's paws, turning it around and inspecting it with satisfaction.

"Good, excellent" he rumbled.

"From the pesky ampharos too" the smaller figure said.

"Yes, it's good to have him out of the way" the dark figure said, holding out a claw for more. He waited for them to take out a mound of bright blue gems, but none came.

"Is this all?!" he growled. The leader of the group before him shifted on her feet uncomfortably.

"You four!" he hissed, gesturing to a nidorino, croconaw, gliscor and boldore, "what happened to your cloaks?!"

"My lord, we…ran into some trouble. We would have retrieved yo-"

"I don't want to hear about what you would have done! What was so horrible that it stopped you from doing the most important task of all?!" the large figure roared.

"W-well…. We were on our way to draining some more Pokémon after a tiring battle with the Ampharos, but….." the figure before him began.

"But what?!" the large figure growled.

"We came along some Pokémon that had arrived to try and help the Ampharos and decided to drain them as well. We ambushed them and all, doing the usual things and we would have gotten you three more gems if, if" the cowering figure hurriedly explained.

"There was as snivy, and she was more slippery than a tynamo- covered in oil!" one of the three still cloaked figures cried.

"Yeah! It was like she could sense our every move!" another of the three added.

"And she kept cheating her death! We were going to destroy her….we were! It was so close!" the third snarled.

"And that's it?! You all fell to one measly snivy?!" the large figure shrieked.

"There was a charmeleon too!" Nidorino said.

"He was tricky!" Gliscor called.

"And he destroyed our cloaks!" Croconaw cried.

"We were weak from the battle with the Ampharos too!" Boldore exclaimed.

"Well? Why couldn't you end them?! There were eight of you and two of them, not including an Ampharos that should barely be able to move!" the dark figure bellowed.

"There was a pichu too" Nidorino squeaked quietly.

"And are you telling me you couldn't even defeat a PICHU?!" the lumbering figure asked, turning to the grovelling poison-type. The group of cowering figures stayed silent, cringing in fear.

"The snivy hit us off-guard with a powerful leaf tornado… We weren't expecting it to know or use that move, let alone make one that strong" another of the cloaked Pokémon stammered. The large dark figure sighed.

"Then why did you not leave and drain some other Pokémon instead?!" he growled.

"We were quite beaten up by the battle, as the leaf tornado sent a few boulders and rocks tumbling onto some of us too" the masked Pokémon said. The Oblivion Wings winced at the memory, some rubbing their scars and wounds gloomily.

"You all retreat because you get hurt?! I-" the large figure started.

"But we also wanted to quickly deliver this to you" the figure before him interrupted, quickly taking out a small, pale blue orb with a strange swirl of yellow and red in the middle.

The larger figure was about to roar ' _You expect me to be interested in collecting a useless little orb?!',_ when the small figure hastily said "We found it in the Ampharos's necklace after Gliscor used knock off on him. I think it has something to do with the powerful form that Ampharos is able to enter every time he disrupts our attempts to drain Pokémon anywhere near Acrinom town."

Suddenly, the larger figure stopped and took the orb, looking at it curiously. If this was the key to Ampharos's amazing power, then it would be worth keeping and inspecting for a while. He nodded in approval.

"This stone is intriguing and important, and therefore you are all excused for not bringing me enough essences, but be careful as I may not pardon you a second time" he growled.

The group of Pokémon at his feet bowed.

"Thank you, we won't displease you again" the masked Pokémon said, backing out of the large figure's sight.

As soon as they were outside, all of the Pokémon except the masked Pokémon sighed in relief.

"Hey, maybe we should bring him a pack of marbles next time!" one of the cloaked Pokémon snickered. They all burst into a roar of laughter. The masked Pokémon growled, then grasped the Pokémon who'd made the joke by the neck. The laughter died down immediately.

"Don't waste your time! We're not letting those little twerps make fun of us again, and this time, we're bringing back something more valuable than a curious looking stone and we're not going back till we do" she snarled. The other Pokémon all nodded silently. The masked Pokémon let the gasping cloaked Pokémon go and smiled.

"We have Pokémon to drain" she said. With a flick of her ear, the Oblivion Wings pulled down their cloak hoods and darted off into the dark night.

* * *

 **Hello! I am back from my break and officially back on the job! This was a rather short chapter with only 977 words, but don't worry! I was going to add in the main story(Snivine and Spark), but I was afraid that would make it too long, so I made it a separate chapter by itself and so Snivine and Spark will be coming back in chapter 4. But in the meanwhile, I hope you enjoyed this chapter nonetheless, regardless of how short it is. I promise you lots of dungeon exploring in the next chapter! (review, please!) :)**


	5. Chapter 4(UN-UPDATED)

"JUST A REMINDER TO ALL EXPLORATION TEAMS, PLEASE MEET IN THE COMMON ROOM AT NINE THIRTY!" someone Hyper Voiced down the cabin hallway. Spark's ear twitched to the sound, then suddenly his eyes snapped open.

"IT'S OUR FIRST MORNING AS AN EXPLORATION TEAM!" he yelled, so loud that it rivalled even the Hyper Voice.

Snivine opened her eyes groggily to see Spark zooming around their cabin at a breathtaking speed.

"Whaaaaaat's the tiiiime….?" she yawned.

"EIGHTANDWE'REMEETINGINTHECOMMONROOMATNINETHIRTYLET'SGO!" he replied before sprinting outside. Snivine blinked then rubbed her eyes in bewilderment.

"S-spark! You forgot your scarf and badge!" she called after him. The pichu came skidding back a second later, snatched the two items from the chest in their room then bolted back out the door.

"Wait up! You're going to crash into either a Pokémon or a wall at this rate!" she shouted. Snivine shook her head and sighed. After grabbing her own scarf and badge, she raced after him into the dawn of their first day as dungeon explorers.

* * *

Snivine found Spark, lying dazed in front of a wall where there had been a sharp turn as she'd predicted.

"I knew you were going to bash yourself into something" she said as she pulled him onto his feet again.

"S-sorry….." he said dizzily, "Let's….go…!" Spark prepared to take off again, but Snivine quickly grabbed his paw.

"Oh no you don't, I don't want you crashing into any more walls" she said, yanking him back. Spark ran a few record-breaking laps around Snivine then finally let out a long sigh and settled down.

"Ok, now that you've been calmed down, why don't we figure out what we're gonna do in this spare time?" she suggested.

"What do you mean?" Spark asked.

"It's only six past eight, and we were only supposed to meet in the common room at nine thirty" she said, gesturing to a clock in a room nearby.

"Oh" Spark said, disappointed.

"How about we get something to eat? I'm starving and we haven't eaten since yesterday" Snivine suggested. Spark thought about it for a while, but a big rumble from both of their stomachs sealed the decision.

"Do they serve breakfast here? Or do we have to get our own?" Spark asked. Snivine shrugged. Suddenly, a scent wafted along, a delicious aroma that made their hungry mouths water.

"I hope so, cause my stomach's going to kill me if they don't" Spark drooled, dashing off again, this time in search of the source of the scent. This time however, Snivine couldn't agree more.

They found that the heavenly smell came from none other than- the kitchen. Cautiously, they opened the door and looked around. The beautiful scent now hit them on the full, dancing around their noses tauntingly. In the kitchen was an emboar wearing an apron, gently lifting out a batch of newly baked buns.

"Hi, can we eat those?" Spark asked drowsily. Horrified, Snivine quickly wacked him on the head and pulled him around the door.

"That wasn't what we were supposed to say!" she hissed.

"It wasn't?" he asked, still drowsy from the scent.

"No! Do you have any idea how impolite that was?!" she asked. Spark shook his head sluggishly. With a groan, she stepped into the kitchen again to apologise.

"I'm so sorry! That's not what he meant! My friend was just-" she began. The emboar only shook his head and laughed.

"Don't worry, it's fine! These are for the exploration teams anyway" he said, stacking them onto a big plate then placing it next to two others lying in the counter. He then paused for a moment, and took two from the piles.

"Here, have some!" he offered to the starving duo.

"R-really?" Snivine asked. Spark on the other hand took one and bit into it without hesitation. Suddenly, his ears perked up and a blast of electricity erupted from both of his cheeks.

" _Amazing_ …." He whispered, almost fainting from the wondrous food. Emboar let out a hearty laugh and shoved the other bun into Snivine's hands.

"You guys got up quite quickly, excited for the day eh? Why don't you sit down in the dining room? Some of the other teams should be coming down soon" he said.

"Thanks" Snivine said.

"No need. Which exploration team will you two happen to be in then? I don't think I've seen you around here before" Emboar said.

"We're the Seekers of Truth!" Spark- who seemed to have snapped out of his trance- answered.

"You are?!" Emboar asked. They nodded slowly.

"Amazing! I've heard a lot about you two! Famous already on their first day! Come on, we'll talk about it in the dining room, just after I'm done with the fruit salad ok?" he said.

"There's more food?!" Spark squealed. Snivine opened her mouth to yell at him, but Emboar only chuckled and waved her away.

"Don't blame him, you deserve a feast after what you've accomplished in only your first few hours" he said. Snivine nodded, then pulled Spark away to find themselves a table at the dining room, which could be accessed through the kitchen as well as the hallway.

Soon, the empty dining room was filled with teams and DET staff, all ravenously devouring the delicious breakfast Emboar had prepared for them.

After the food, everyone crowded over to a very overwhelmed Spark and Snivine- they hadn't known how famous that one afternoon had made them. Everywhere, Pokémon shouted to be heard, almost drowning them in questions before Emboar told them all to give them some space.

Eventually, the rush died down and after everyone had given a small congratulations (except Floette from the Shinygleam team, who merely commented that they were 'Not bad'), they began to go off to chatter about other things, finally giving Snivine and Spark a break from everything.

"How's Ampharos?" Snvine asked Minccino, eager to talk about something other than their encounter yesterday, "I don't think I saw him at breakfast."

"He's still too weak to come out yet, but he is much better than yesterday. We're making arrangements for him to be taken to the nearest hospital, which is in Silverbark town. It's a long way, but thankfully they're willing to help come and escort him there" Minccino replied.

"Oh, well I'm glad he's getting better" Snivine said.

"Who's going to manage the DET while he's gone then?" Spark asked. Minccino sighed.

"We're still working that out, but Emboar and I are going to help do some of the duties he'd usually be doing for now. When it comes to important decisions, we'll contact Ampharos and ask him if we can" she replied.

"Also, about that necklace you found, did it have anything in the crystal star?" Snivine asked, remembering Ampharos's words. Minccino looked at her curiously.

"I don't think so" she replied. "I gave it to Ampharos after he returned."

"Oh…" Snivine muttered. _Well, hopefully it wasn't something too important_ she thought.

"They're back!" someone suddenly called.

"Who?" she asked.

"Team Déjà vu!" the same Pokémon, a marill, cried as it ran into the dining room.

Right on que, a Delphox, Armaldo and Honchkrow stepped inside.

"Did we miss breakfast?" the Delphox asked with a smile.

"You're back!" team Infinity exclaimed.

"Did you find anything?" Ponyta from team Volt asked. Armaldo nodded with a big grin.

"Look at this" he said, taking out a small, charred totem covered in strange symbols and carvings. They all gasped in amazement.

"You guys are going to have some good fun deciphering those symbols" Eelektrik laughed.

"Oh this is enough to keep us going for weeks on end! It's another huge step towards uncovering the mysteries of the ancient Lava falls civilisation, I think we might just be on the verge of something big!" the Delphox said, beaming at their discovery.

"Good to see you guys again! Come on and eat up, there'll always be food for you guys" Emboar said welcomingly.

The new DET members stared at the scene in confusion.

"Oh, sorry! I forgot, it seems some new members were added to the team while we were gone. We'd better introduce ourselves" Delphox said, "I'm Mystic."

"I'm Rune" the Honchkrow said.

"And my name is just Armaldo, the armaldo!" Armaldo said.

"We explore dungeons to collect ancient artefacts and uncover mysteries about the past!" Mystic explained.

"That's where the name déjà vu comes from- what has happened will happen again!" Rune said ominously.

"We had to miss the registration since we were caught in the midst of this discovery and Lava falls was at least a day and a half's journey to Acrinom town. We'll try helping out as much as we can today though" Armaldo apologised.

The new DET members were now much less confused, except for Snivine.

"I thought you were only supposed to give out your nickname to Pokémon you know really well or are friends with" she said, completely baffled.

"Hey, we're all a big team here! That's only for strangers! You may as well know what to call each other unless they prefer to be called by their species name anyway" said Emboar, who'd overheard her talking. Snivine nodded, still trying to get the hang of the Pokémon naming system.

"What about team Contrary? Have you heard of when they'll be returning?" Sawsbuck asked.

"I think I've heard that they're defending a small village from a team of elite bandits somewhere, but other than that no" Rune said.

"I hope they're alright, bandits can be really tricky sometimes" Sawsbuck said, "That team is truly one of a kind, it's sad they can't be here for the first two days of welcoming new members in."

"Which reminds me, it's nine already, so there's only half an hour before you all need to meet in the common room! Old DET members, don't go on any missions for the time being until this is done- unless it's an emergency" Minccino reminded.

The teams all nodded and began to disperse from the dining room, besides team Déjà vu who hadn't eaten yet and a few other teams that had decided to sit down and chat for a while.

"Well, what do we do now?" Snivine asked.

"Oh! I know! I'll show you around town! Come on!" Spark squealed, preparing to dash off once again.

"SPARK, NO. YOU ARE NOT RUNNING UNTIL WE GET OUT OF THIS BUILDING" Snivine said strictly. Spark sighed then grabbed her hand.

"But I want to quickly show you everything! How about we just very, very, very quickly walk?" he said.

"Fine" Snivine grumbled.

"Yay! Let's go!" he squealed, 'very, very, very quickly walking' out of the dining room, through the corridors and out the front door with Snivine holding onto his paw for dear life.

"That was NOT 'very, very, very quickly walking'! That was running at the speed of light!" she snapped afterwards. Spark shrugged.

"Sorry, now can I show you the town please?" he asked.

"Okay, okay. But seriously, don't zip around like that will you?" she pleaded.

"Don't worry, I won't" he assured. "First up, is Kecleon's store!"

Spark led Snivine through the town until they reached a green store that looked like a Kecleon's head.

"Ahh! Good day to you young ones! What would ya like? I've got different items of all kinds, orbs, stones, scopes, TMs, you name it! You can sell any items ya don't need to me too! There's even a surprise box! Want something special? The daily special is always changing, so you can come back and check tomorrow if today's special isn't very appealing!" Kecleon cried, waving items of all kinds in their faces.

"Uhh… no thanks, I think I'm ok" Snivine said.

"Ar ya sure? I've got a dawn stone on special here! I don't usually sell this, but I just found one! It's only gonna be on for one day! You gotta go through a whole ton of dungeons if ya want to find one yerself- or you can get one right here, right now for only fifty poké!" Kecleon offered again.

"I don't have any poke! Besides, I don't need that stuff" Snivine said, starting to get irritated by the salesman's advertising.

"Hey, Kecleon, where did your brother go?" Spark asked.

"You have a brother?" Snivine asked.

"Yes, he went to set up shop in a new dungeon that's just opened up. Kecleon #243 has always wished to become an explorer and explore dungeons, but I'm afraid selling items in a dungeon's the closest he's going to ever get" Kecleon sighed.

"Why can't he be a dungeon explorer?" Spark asked. Kecleon shook his head sadly.

"We just don't. Selling items are the kecleon's family tradition, nobody has ever been anything else. Kecleons are shop keepers and that's just that" he said.

"Oh… I'm sorry for your brother; it must be torture seeing all those exploration teams going by his shop" Snivine said.

"Yeah, you know, we're an exploration team now, me and Snivy" Spark said. Snivine gave Spark a soft smack on his head and glared at him.

"Uh, how many kecleon are there in this item-selling kecleon family?" Snivine asked, trying to change the subject.

"Three hundred and fifty eight, not including the sixty nine eggs expected to hatch soon this summer" Kecleon replied.

"W-wait, you mean there are _three hundred and forty eight_ kecleon in your family?! Like, they're all related to you?!" Snivine cried in astonishment.

"Three hundred and _fifty_ eight" Kecleon corrected, "All in my extensive family."

"You've got to be joking… how do you remember everyone?!" Snivine asked. Kecleon shrugged.

"We're all just called Kecleon number something, or just the number. Like I'm Kecleon #244, one number after my brother because I was born after him" Kecleon #244 said.

"Wow" Spark commented. Kecleon gave them a wide smile.

"Well, is there anything you want here?" he asked, reminding Snivine of the time.

"No thanks Kecleon, maybe after we get some poké" Spark said.

"Very well, see you then, and good luck on your first adventures in the dungeons!" Kecleon called as they walked away.

"Phew, what's next?" Snivine asked.

"None other than Klefki bank!" Spark announced.

"A bank? Why are we going to a bank?"

"Cause, so you can store your poké safely while exploring dungeons! You don't want to be carrying your life savings everywhere you go"

"Good point, but what _is_ poké?" Snivine said. Spark blinked at her in shock.

"Sorry, I keep forgetting you're amnesic, it's just the currency we use here, you should get familiar with them soon enough" Spark said.

"What?! No, I'm not amnesic! What were you thinking?" Snivine cried.

"I found you in a forest with no idea what any of the basic stuff were, what else could you be?" Spark shrugged.

"I thought I told you! I am- or was- a human!" Snivine yelled.

"I don't know, you're just like any other snivy- It would be cool and fun if you were though!" Spark said.

"Forget it. No one's going to believe me, not even you I guess" Snivine grumbled. Silently, they went on their way again.

They arrived at a building with a big wooden poké on the front. Below the poké was a counter, though no one seemed to be there.

"Hello? Goldie?" Spark called at the counter.

"Who's Goldie?" Snivine asked.

"A shiny klefki, she manages this bank. I know most of the shopkeepers here really well cause I've lived here for my whole life so far, so that's how I know their names. I don't think we'll be doing that once we travel to other towns though" Spark explained. Just then, a klefki with a golden tint on the normally silver body rushed out to greet them.

"Oh hello! Sparky warky! I see you've become an explorer now by your badge! Sorry to keep you waiting, I was just organising my keys. What can I do for you?" Goldie asked.

"Not much, just coming by to say hello and introduce you to my partner, Snivine" Spark (who didn't seem to enjoy being called 'Sparky warky' at all) said.

"Well nice to meet you Snivine! What a wonderful name! Who made it?" Goldie commented.

"I di-"

"My auntie" Snivine replied, slapping a hand over Spark's mouth.

"Ah, I see. Maybe you'd like to register an account for your team, the poké are going to be coming in soon enough!" Goldie suggested.

"Ok, good with you Spark?" Snivine said.

"Sounds awesome" he agreed.

"Splendid! I'll get everything ready in just a sec!" Goldie sang as she floated back into the bank. A while later, she came bobbing back with a shiny new key on her chain.

"All done! A vault has been registered to you two and the key is safe with me! Quite a pretty new key too isn't it?" she said, flicking the pale golden key so that it flashed in the sunlight.

"Well that's all done, anything else you'd like to do here?" the klefki asked. Spark shook his head.

"We'll come by and deposit some poké once we finish our first dungeon" Spark said.

"Ok then, goodbye and make sure you come by sometime!" Goldie said.

"We will!" Spark shouted back. Once they were out of sight, Snivine grabbed Spark and turned him around to face her.

"I told you _not_ to tell anyone you just made up this name for me!" she growled.

"Sorry" he said with a cheeky smile, "I forgot."

"Okay, where were you planning on taking me next?"

"You'll see, I think you're going to like this one" Spark said.

Their next stop was a small shop covered in moss, vines, plants and flowers hanging everywhere sitting in front of a mystical orchard. A wind chime hanging from the shop roof sang a beautiful melody…a relaxing aroma drifted along the air…plants of all kinds covered the orchard…flower patches coloured the fields a rainbow of fantastic colours…fresh fruits and berries hung on the trees and bushes….and a tiny pumpkaboo snatched a bunch of fruits while dodging a powerful solar beam…. Wait, what?

Snivine and Spark barely ducked in time to dodge a barrage of razor leaves, only to be flung aside as a pumpkaboo zoomed by followed by a very angry bayleef.

"YOU FILTHY THIEF! NOBODY STEALS FROM MY ORCHARD!" the bayleef raged. The little pumpkaboo only turned around to stick his tongue out teasingly.

"TAKE MY RAZOR LEAF!" Bayleef shouted, sending another barrage of sharp leaves towards the ghost-type. He did a sharp bob upwards to evade the attack, but was caught by surprise when a wondrous scent suddenly drifted by.

"Didn't expect my sweet scent did you?" Bayleef growled in satisfaction, charging up a solar beam. The pumpkaboo tried to bob away lazily, but was completely mesmerised by the bayleef's sweet scent.

"SOLAR BEAM!" Bayleef announced. The bright, glowing beam blasted the pumpkaboo on the full, sending him flying into a tree and fainting him instantly. Bayleef then went over to the thief and held him with her vines.

"Let's see what you've got" she said, turning him upside-down and shaking out a pile of fruits, seeds and berries from under his ruffles.

"There they are! I'll take that back now please!" she said, throwing pumpkaboo back onto the ground and taking back her precious items.

Snivine and Spark sat staring nearby, completely amazed by what had just happened.

"Wow, what happened there?" Spark asked, walking with Snivine towards the triumphing grass-type. Bayleef immediately turned around and jumped into a battle poise, relaxing when she saw who it was.

"Spark! Sorry, I was just a little caught up in catching this thief here who thought he could steal from _my_ orchard! Hmph" Bayleef huffed.

"Yeah, we could see. We just came by to say a little hello! Me and Snivine have just become an exploration team and I'm showing her around town" Spark said.

"Oh! So your friend is new to Acrinom town is she?" Bayleef asked. Snivine nodded. "Well I'm Bayleef and I manage the orchard here. I have apples, berries and seeds here which you can buy if you'd like. If you want to, you can even plant a seed if you come across good soil. I can teach you how to too if you need to."

"Thanks Bayleef. But what about the, uh, pumpkaboo?" Snivine said.

"Don't worry about that guy, he should be knocked out for half an hour at the least" Bayleef said.

"Half an hour?! That's horrible!" Spark cried.

"Nah, he deserved it. That little thing has been stealing from my orchard for a long time now, and now I've finally caught him" Bayleef said in a pleased tone.

"Is he going to a prison?" Spark asked.

"There are prisons?" Snivine asked.

"Of course there are prisons! Where else are fugitives and outlaws kept after they're caught?" Spark said. Snivine nodded slowly. "So… is he going?" he asked to Bayleef.

"Not _this_ time because he's still too young, but he is gonna pay next time" Bayleef replied. "DID YOU HEAR THAT?" she shouted to the faintly awake pumpkaboo who flinched and fell back into unconsciousness.

"Good thing you caught him" Spark said.

"Yes, very good. I'm so sorry, but I have a parent to yell at right now. Maybe we can chat sometime later. In fact…" Bayleef said, rummaging around in the pile of stolen seeds, apples and berries, "Here, have these as a little gift from me to start off your dungeon exploring adventures."

"H-how did you…" Snivine trailed.

"You badges" Bayleef said, handing out an apple, two seeds and an oran berry to the duo.

"Bayleef…thank you!" Spark squealed, taking the items.

"No problem, I've got to get going now, so see you later!" Bayleef said, dragging the pumpkaboo away.

"Bye!" Spark and Snivine called.

"Now, how are you going to carry that everywhere?" Snivine asked Spark, who was fumbling around with having to carry all the items at once.

"I'm not, which is perfect for our next stop- Ambipom's storage!" Spark said, pulling Snivine over to a large building with an ambipom hopping around at the counter.

"Hellooo! I'm Ambipom, do you have anything you want to store for now?" Ambipom asked.

"Yes please!" Spark said, handing over the items.

"Okay! Have you registered a storage space yet?" Ambipom asked.

"Yeah, but can I open a new one for Snivine and I?" Spark asked.

"Sure! Just wait here for a moment" Ambipom said before bounding into the store.

"All done!" he called a while later, jumping back in front of the counter again. "Let me guess, it's going to be for you exploration team?"

"Yup!" Spark nodded.

"So this storage space will be open for anyone from the…." Ambipom trailed.

"The Seekers of Truth team" Snivine answered.

"Ah, nice name. Ok, it's all set!" the monkey-like Pokémon said, "You can now store up to sixty four items with me!"

"Awesome!" Spark squealed, handing their items over. Ambipom took the items, went back into the store again and came out a few moments later.

"All done! Anything else?" he asked. The Seekers of Truth shook their heads. "Ok, see you later then!"

"Alright! Now that our items have been stored, let's go to Leavanny's shop!" Spark said, tugging Snivine to another store that looked like it was wrapped in a leaf.

"One thing" Snivine said before Spark could call for what she assumed would be a leavanny.

"Yeah?"

"You already had another storage space?"

"Oh yeah, that was left over from my parents. I don't use it or take anything out because I want to wait till…till I find him- that is, if I do" Spark said.

"Oh… ok"

"Hello! What can I do for you today?" asked a voice. Snivine and Spark turned around to see a Leavanny walk to the counter with a newly knitted scarf in its leafy hands.

"Sunny! Meet Snivine, my exploration team partner!" Spark said.

"Why hello Snivine! You two are a great match! Why haven't I seen you before…?" Sunny said.

"Well, I'm sorta new here" Snivine replied.

"Oh! So you're new to Acrinom town? Welcome then! I hope you've like everything so far! I'm Sunny and I work at this shop here! I make scarfs, bands, ribbons and other kinds of clothes too!" Sunny said.

"Thanks, Acrinom's a pretty nice place so far, everyone is really kind and helpful" Snivine said.

"Sunny makes the best clothes and garments! Lots of pokémon get their wedding clothes from her, and she has good ribbons and stuff that are helpful for exploring!" Spark said.

"Why would you need ribbons or scarfs for exploring dungeons?" Snivine asked.

"There are a lot more to ribbons and scarfs than you may think!" Sunny chuckled, "some can do many special things. Here, take this!"

The leavanny stretched the scarf she had made and shook it out a bit before handing it to Snivine.

"What's this?" she asked.

"A pecha scarf! It prevents you from getting poisoned" Sunny explained.

"It does?" Snivine asked, untying her DET scarf and putting the pecha scarf on instead, "I don't feel any different."

"You'll see when you get into a dungeon" Sunny said with a wink.

"Ok…" Snivine said, still unconvinced.

"Well, anything else you wanted to do?" Sunny asked.

"I don't think so" Spark said.

"Ok then, have fun! And don't forget to try out that pech scarf!" Sunny called as they left.

"And now for Colo Delights!" Spark cried as they arrived in front of a building that looked roughly like a ludicolo.

"Mornin' whippersnappers! Would you like anythin'?" Ludicolo asked.

"Ludicolo works here, he makes delicious snacks, drinks and most important of all….gummies!" Spark said to Snivine.

"Gummies?" she asked.

"This young lass doesn't know what a gummi is?! Well she ought to know! Stay right here lil' one!" Ludicolo boomed, going somewhere in his shop. He came back holding a handful of colourful jellybean-like lollies.

"Those are gummies?" Snivine asked.

"Yup! Give 'em a try!" he offered, throwing her a bright green gummi. Cautiously, she slowly bit into the lolly.

"Do you like it?" Spark asked. Snivine decided it was ok and gulped the whole gummi down.

"Surprisingly…yes. It tastes like grass and mint" she commented.

"Ha ha, of course you like it! It's a grass gummi, for grass types!" Ludicolo laughed.

"So…there are different gummies for all different types?" Snivine asked curiously.

"Yeah! And different pokémon like gummies that are the same as their type! That's why you like grass gummies and I like yellow gummies better than all others!" Spark explained.

"Cool!" Snivine said.

"Do you want to buy any? I have food and drinks too!" Ludicolo asked.

"No thanks, we don't have any poké yet" Snivine said.

"Aww, ok come back when you do!" Ludicolo said.

After Colo's Delights, Spark took Snivine to a large playground with a fountain in the centre. A variety of different pokémon laughed, ran and played on the playground equipment happily.

"Welcome to Acrinom Park!" Spark cried.

"Oh, that's nice" Snivine commented, "what's next?"

"Hmm? I'm not done here yet!" Spark pouted.

"Well, what's there to do? There isn't a pokémon owning the park, and you seriously don't expect me to play with those kids do you?" Snvine said.

"No, that's not all though! What about Breloom's training camp?!" Spark said, pointing to a part of the park Snivine hadn't noticed yet. Standing behind the playground was what seemed like a bunch of obstacle courses, training dummies and battle grounds. A large sign hanging from a pole in front read:

'Breloom's Training Camp

Enter at lv1, exit at lv100!'

"Come on!" Spark squealed, pulling Snivine over to Breloom, who was punching a metal training dummy.

"Hey! Were you guys…looking for a bit of…hard-core training?" he huffed, noticing them. "Then you've come to the right place!" he huffed again before they could reply.

"Uh, no actually. I'm just showing my partner Snivine around" Spark said.

"Aww, ok. Breloom's the name and I toughen pokémon and their moves right up! You can come to me whenever you feel you need to make yourself stronger, only a hundred poké an hour!" the dual fighting-type said as it mach punched a hole straight through the dummy's body, making Snivine felt a little sorry for it.

"That sounds cool" Snvine said.

"It sure is! Wanna give it a go?" Breloom asked.

"No thanks, maybe next time" Snivine said.

"We got the soft stuffed dummies for beginners, then wood, stone and eventually metal! But that's not all, there's also the obstacle course that trains many things like agility, accuracy and many more! Make sure you come back sometime to sharpen up those moves!" Breloom said.

"I'll do that when I actually figure out how to _use_ any moves" Snivine said.

"What? You mean you don't know how to use any moves?!" Breloom cried.

"Don't worry, I'm figuring it out…" Snivine assured, hoping he wasn't about to pull her into the obstacle course.

"Don't be shy! Come here and I'm gonna pump you u-"

"Oh no! I think we need to go!" Spark cried.

"What do you mean? What's the time?" Snivine asked, secretly relieved for Spark's interruption.

"I looked at the town clock, and I think we're five minutes late!" Spark said, quickly tugging Snivine along, "sorry Breloom, we'll visit next time!"

"Oh, ok. Goodbye then! I'll always be willing to help teach you a few moves Snivine!" Breloom shouted after them.

As soon as they got out of the park, Snivine and Spark dashed towards the Dungeon Exploration Team lodge as quickly as they could.

"There you guys are! We were going to start without you!" Emboar boomed as they skidded into the common room. All the exploration teams had gathered to help out the new members- Zippy, Gligar, a baltoy, a cottonee and a buneary.

"Emboar?! Why are you here?" Spark asked.

"Oh I do more than just cook!" Emboar rumbled, "I also happen to be Ampharos's old friend! So I'm not too rusty on my dungeon exploring and battle skills either, I used to be a professional wrestler in fact!"

"Wow, I never knew that" Snivine gasped.

"Enough about me, let's get started now shall we?" Emboar said. Grinning, he reached into the box behind him and pulled out a bunch of small bags.

"These are your bags! Right now, you can carry up to sixteen items in them while exploring dungeons, though they will be upgraded as your rank goes up. There's one bag for each team" he explained as he handed them out.

"Yay! We finally got a bag to carry items in!" Spark squealed in excitement, opening it and peering inside.

"It's a special, magical one too" Arcanine said with a smile.

"A special one?" Cottonee asked.

"I don't see anything special with this bag" Buneary said sceptically. Arcanine chuckled and retrieved a giant chopping board from Emboar's kitchen.

"Yeah, you don't suppose that's gonna fit in here do you?" Baltoy asked.

"Watch and learn" Dewott said, opening up his team's bag. The new explorers gasped as the chopping board was released and slipped right into the bag without any difficulty at all.

"W-what?! Did that just….how…?!" Snivine gasped. The older exploration teams all laughed merrily at their bewildered faces.

"It's called an enchanted bag" Manectric from team Volt informed them. "Anything fits, no matter how big. It doesn't make it much heavier either, cool right?"

The new members were now much more excited for getting their bags.

"Hey, why didn't I get one?" Baltoy asked with a frown.

"And me!" Gligar said.

"Cause your team already has one!" Emboar reminded them. Gligar had become a part of team Volt and Baltoy had joined team Rumble.

"Now that you're all introduced to the bag, let me tell you a few things about your badges" Emboar said. "These aren't just ordinary badges either. Your badges are what connect you to your team-mates! What I mean, is that whenever you're in a dungeon and another pokémon in your team finds the stairs and they climb them, you'll automatically be warped to them on the next floor. Convenient right? These badges can also warp you out of the dungeon when you've had enough or if you need to bring a pokémon you've rescued back."

Spark looked at their badges curiously.

"It's hard to believe such a little thing could do so much" he mused.

"Yeah, good thing there's even an option on quitting" Snivine agreed.

"And now….you're all gonna do some exploring first-hand for yourself!" Emboar announced. Spark bounced up and down in delight.

"I can't believe it! Our first dungeon is coming up!" he squealed.

"Where are we going?" Gligar asked.

"Serene Forest!" Emboar answered.

"Serene forest has a dungeon?" Snivine asked.

"Of course! It's one of the easiest dungeons around here" Alakazam from team Infinity said.

The rookies immediately burst into excited chatter.

"Ahh, I remember those days as a new member" Arcanine said in amusement.

"It was so exciting, and look at us now! Exploring places like Eternal Canyon…I used to think Serene Forest was pretty hard…." Sawsbuck said, blushing in embarrassment at the old memory.

"Hey, do you guys want to explore Serene forest or not?" Emboar called at the door. They all knew the answer to that.

 **Serene Forest**

Serene Forest was just as Snivine had remembered it, quiet and peaceful like its name suggested. A few rays of light shone through the lightly rustling leaves and danced on the forest floor in blobby patterns as a quiet breeze blew by.

"So are we all going in together?" she asked.

"Oh, no, no, no!" Emboar said, "we definitely can't do that. There's a safety limit of three or if you have to, four. The dungeon won't allow any more at a time, so we'll have to split you all into teams of three. The new members will have at least one experienced explorer in their group."

"That's strange, why can't you have more than four?" Spark asked. Emboar shrugged and many of the older members shook their heads.

"Trust me, we've tried. Of course it would be better to have more members..." Pidgeot from team Rumble said.

"But it just doesn't let you. It's just this huge, pressurising force that warps you straight out!" Marill continued.

"It's sort of like the wind" Pachirisu from team Volt commented.

"The wind?" Zippy asked.

"Oh, that's another thing you have to watch out for. The wind is this….mysterious force that just blows you right out of the dungeon if you stay for too long. It's only really a problem if you seriously can't find the stairs, but if you feel something stirring, then find the stairs and climb them as quickly as you possibly can! Don't ever try to face the wind, there's no way to stop in once it comes and you're hit by it" Emboar warned seriously.

"That sounds creepy…" Spark said.

"Yes it is, very" Marill said with a shiver.

"But don't worry too much, it only comes after a really long time" Luxio said.

"Ok, now here's what we're gonna do. Gligar is going with two pokémon from team Volt, Baltoy with two pokémon from team Rumble, the Stunning Sisters, Cotton and Cloud"-Buneary and Cottonee did a little twirl together-"are going with Breeze (the swellow from team Volt), Zippy is going with _Floette and Leafeon_ and the Seekers of Truth, Spark and Snivine, are going with me. The rest of you that aren't going with any of the new members can wait here. Is that settled?" Emboar asked.

"I'm terribly sorry" Floette said backing away with her team, "but I'm afraid we have to-"

"Oh you're not going anywhere!" Emboar rumbled, grabbing her flower. "You are going to help out this time!"

Floette let out an annoyed sigh and muttered "Fine."

"Good, we'll go one at a time so that the dungeon can reset itself" Emboar said. One by one, the groups entered the dungeon until finally it was their turn.

"Our first dungeon…" Spark gasped.

"What are we waiting for?" Snivine asked.

"I have no idea" Spark said, grinning as they took their first step into the mystery dungeon.


	6. Chapter 5(UN-UPDATED)

**Important! If you're an older reader, then READ this before continuing. If you only JUST got up to this point, then go on ahead.**

 **I just wanted to inform you that there have been a lot of changes to my older chapters since they were first posted, so I HIGHLY recommend you reread everything first because some of them are quite important. Also, I actually moved the beginning of this chapter to the previous chapter, so make sure you read the end of chapter 4 before you begin too.**

 **sorry for the interruption, and enjoy the story!**

* * *

 **Serene Forest**

 **1F**

"Wow" they gasped. The ground was made of plain dirt, but the walls were made of a low block of earth with plants and shrubbery pressing so close together on top that it seemed to form a solid wall itself. They were in a small room with two corridors leading somewhere else.

"Now, there are going to be dungeon pokémon. These pokémon aren't like the normal pokémon you meet and see every day, they won't hesitate to attack you and don't have feelings of empathy so don't be afraid to attack them. You can just do a regular attack too" Emboar informed them.

"So what do we do now?" Snivine asked.

"Explore the dungeon and search for the stairs. The stairs are what let you progress through the dungeon and get to the end. It's totally random where you appear and what the dungeon layout's going to be like so if you're lucky, you might even spawn right next to them!" Emboar said.

Just then, a caterpie crawled into their room.

"Ooo! Thundershock!" Spark shouted, sending out a small shock of electricity at the caterpie. It was surprised and almost fainted, but still hung on to send a string shot right at Spark's face.

"Egh! Thnivine! Finith ith oth!" Spark cried through the string.

"H-how?!" she asked, trying desperately to get her vines to come out but to no avail. It had worked the day before!

"Wait, you don't know how to attack?" Emboar asked her.

"Umm, not really…not at will" she mumbled.

"Try a tackle attack, you should know that" Emboar said. Snivine nodded and charged at the caterpie with all her strength. Surprisingly, it didn't feel like just any normal bump, but a powerful tackle. The attack sent the caterpie flying into a wall where it lay fainted.

"Yay! You did it!" Spark cried as he finally got the last of the string off him.

"You two are doing very well for beginners, especially since Snivine didn't seem to have much experience using actual moves" Emboar said.

"Really?!" Spark asked. Emboar nodded.

"I think I found the stairs" Snivine called from the next room. They hurried over to the room, which thankfully didn't have any more dungeon pokémon in it, and found a round blue berry next to a small staircase seemingly leading to nowhere that went upwards a few steps before ending a while away from the ceiling.

"Yes! Oran berry!" Spark cried, putting the small round berry in their bag.

"Oran berry?" Snivine asked.

"They restore your energy and health when eaten, and they're yummy too!" Spark said.

"Oh, right" Snivine said.

"Looks like your friend already knows quite a few things here" Emboar said, "come on, let's get going."

"Uh, are we supposed to climb those?" Snivine asked, looking at the unfinished stairs.

"Yes" Emboar replied. Snivine and Spark both looked at each other with confused and sceptical expressions.

"I don't get it Emboar, they don't go anywhere" Spark said.

"It doesn't make any sense! Why are there stairs in the middle of a forest anyway?" Snivine said.

"Does anything else in here seem to make sense?" Emboar asked.

"No, I guess not" she said. _And neither do human-turned-pokémon and talking pokémon, come to think of it_ she thought to herself.

"Then go on, try for yourself. These are called mystery dungeons for a reason! They're full of mysterious things, and you never know what you might find!" Emboar laughed.

"Ok…" Snivine said. This was getting stranger and stranger every day!

Cautiously, they climbed the stairs. Suddenly, there was a flash, and they felt themselves being warped somewhere.

 **2F**

This time, they were not so lucky. The trio had spawned with three wild pokémon in the same room as them, two budew and a plant cloak wormadam. As soon as Spark took one step, the two budews noticed them and waddled over to attack.

"Spark, you have budew one and I'll have budew two!" Snivine said, starting to get the hang of this battling.

"Which one is budew one? They all look exactly the same!" Spark cried.

"Just take the one that's closest to you!" Snivine shouted, dodging a stun spore.

"Ok! Take my thundershock budew!" Spark said, shocking the budew with a small bolt of electricity. It didn't seem too hurt however, and retorted with a mega-drain.

"Always remember type advantages! They are very important in battles" Emboar advised.

"I don't mean to sound rude, but why aren't you helping?" Snivine asked, tackling her budew.

"Well, I'm a little _too_ strong for this dungeon and knocking them all out with one hit would just be way too boring for you two won't it? I'm here to help and advise you, but not attack for you" Emboar explained.

"I could use some help" Spark huffed. Emboar just laughed and shrugged.

"You gotta learn" he said.

Budew one suddenly stopped as glowing green orbs circled around it and it grew a little, looking slightly stronger and tougher than before. It then hit Spark with a powerful mega drain that left the budew almost completely refreshed and him looking exhausted.

"Ugh! What was that?!" Spark groaned.

"Growth" Emboar replied. "It raises the user's attack and special attack."

"No wonder it felt so much more powerful than usual" Spark said, hitting the budew with another thundershock.

"Here, let me help" Snivine, who'd fainted budew two, offered.

"Ok, but can I land the finishing hit?" Spark said.

"Sure" Snivine replied as she tackled the budew. After one or more tackles, the budew was weakened enough for Spark to land one more attack.

"Yay!" Spark cried happily as he blasted the budew with a thundershock that ensured it would never bother them again.

With that done, they proceeded to the next room, slipping cautiously past the oblivious wormadam. It was a small room, smaller than the one they'd just come from, with three other corridors branching off from it.

"Which path should we take?" Spark asked, looking at the three routes.

"I don't know, left?" Snivine suggested. The group shrugged and entered the left path, which twisted and turned for quite a while until they were stopped by an angry beedrill, followed by two others.

Spark tried to squeeze in next to Snivine so they could attack it together, but the space was too narrow, and he was forced to stay behind.

"It's ok, I can take this beedrill myself" Snivine said. Spark nodded, but the beedrill was not so happy about that. Buzzing, its front stingers glowed and it jabbed and slashed at Snivine angrily. Snivine jumped, ducked and side-stepped the fury attack, but was thrown back by a powerful twineedle.

"Ow, why did that hurt so much?" she groaned.

"Because that was a bug-type attack, and grass types are weak against bug types" Emboar said from behind, "keep the typing in mind, as they're very important and can give you huge advantage or disadvantage."

Snivine got up and eyed the beedrill carefully. "So I'm a grass type and I'm weak to bug-type things"

"Right"

"Ok, what else am I weak to then?"

"Flying, poison, ice and fire"

"Bug...fire…ice…flying…"

"BZZZZ!" the beedrill interrupted.

"And poison too" Emboar reminded.

"That's a lot" Snivine said in a disappointed tone.

"BUZZZ BZZZZZ!" It buzzed impatiently, lashing at her with another twineedle. Snivine ducked and smacked its front legs away with her tail.

"I'm going to need to remember these type stuff" she sighed. The beedrill hissed at her in annoyance and switched places with the beedrill behind it.

"Beedrill's a flying type too, right?" Spark asked.

Emboar shook his head. "It's a bug and poison type"

"But it has wings, and it flies!" Spark said in confusion.

"It's still not a flying type though. Though it can fly, it can't fly nearly as high as a flying type can and it's still vulnerable to ground-type moves" Emboar said, shrugging.

"Oh, well, if it was a flying type then I could have taken it easily. At least I'm neutral against it though" Spark said.

"Well, since you're neutral against it and I'm not, would you mind switching with me then?" Snivine asked.

"Ok, are you hurt or something?" Spark asked.

"N-no, just a bit tired out" she replied.

"Sure then!" Spark said with a shrug.

Snivine sighed with relief and happily let spark take her place.

"So you're an electric type and electric types are good against flying types" Snivine said as Spark beat the beedrills up for her.

"Yep! And water types too!" Spark announced happily, sending a fried beedrill tumbling into its remaining ally. Cautiously, the last beedrill stepped up to Spark with an uncertain "Bzz…?"

"Well, what are you weak to then?" Snivine asked.

"Ground types"

"J-just ground types?"

"Just ground types" Spark replied, mercilessly fainting the beedrill with a thundershock. Snivine looked away, slightly displeased at Spark's single disadvantage compared to her many weaknesses.

Luckily, the next room held the heavenly stairs, along with a rock which Emboar advised could be thrown at opponents to deal damage. It was called a gravelrock, she learned, and they placed it in their bag for later.

 **3F**

They appeared in a large, spacious room that miraculously didn't have any pokémon or items in it at all. In the very middle was a curious looking tile with a green arrow on it.

"What's this?" Spark asked, peering at it curiously.

"A wonder tile, it'll return your stat changes to normal when you step on it. You might need it after getting hit by a lot of stat-decreasing moves in a battle" Emboar said.

Cautiously, Spark took a step onto the tile. Nothing happened.

"It's not doing anything" Spark said disappointedly.

"I think that's because you haven't had any stat changes yet" Snivine said.

"Oh" Spark said sadly.

After proceeding through a few more rooms and passages, they found the stairs in a small room guarded by two kakuna and a large beedrill. Snivine mentally shivered at the sight of the huge, sharp stingers at the ends of its arms, but kept her face emotionless and politely requested for Spark to take care of the beedrill. The pichu happily agreed and they began the attack on the two kakunas.

"BZZZZ" the beedrill warned threateningly as they approached. The two kakunas narrowed their eyes and hopped forward.

"KEKE, KKK!" they clattered.

"Go away you meanies! We need to get to the stairs!" Spark yelled at them, giving them the scariest look he could make- which wasn't very scary. Snivine started it off with a tackle, smashing into one of the kakunas with as much force as she could. To her utter bewilderment, it didn't seem hurt at all from the attack, and calmly used harden. Its whole body tensed and glowed, dimming only to reveal a now even hardier looking kakuna. Recovering from the surprise, Snivine took battle stance again and charged with another tackle.

Meanwhile, Spark didn't seem to be having any better luck defeating his kakuna. The beedrill, however, actually stood back and observed the duo's hopeless struggle with his two allies in an almost amused way.

"Who are you looking at?!" Spark huffed at it angrily as his kakuna used yet another harden before slowing the already silk-covered Spark with another string shot.

Snivine's kakuna did the same and maxed its defence with a brilliant harden right before she gave it the best tackle she had. Snivine got up from the attack with a pounding headache. It seemed to have hurt _her_ more that it had hurt _it_. But what shook her to the very core with seething anger, was how the kakuna didn't seem hurt _at all_. Its shell gleamed as if it were new, like not even a single atom had been dented and it blinked at her with such simple, innocent eyes that she felt like smashing it into the end of the universe and back until it was nothing but a pile of dust.

Snivine shook with annoyance, but she clenched her teeth and forced herself to calm down. Just when she thought she had successfully calmed herself down, she heard a squeal from the other side of the room. There, lying against the wall was Spark who was being repeatedly jabbed by poison stings from a suddenly offensive kakuna. Mustering all the energy he had left, Spark knocked the kakuna aside and ran, crying into Snivine's arms.

"He caught me by surprise and knocked me into the wall!" Spark cried, "And, and I think I'm poisoned!"

Snivine looked closer at him and saw that some areas of his body were purple and swollen, small purple bubbles oozed from the spots, hissing and steaming. Then she looked at Spark. He looked up at her with tears in his eyes, sniffing and whimpering in pain.

Suddenly, she shot the kakuna a glare so fierce and frightening that its eyes widened and it shook with fear. It was as if she'd concentrated all of her anger and energy into her eyes, which felt like they were on fire.

She charged at the bug type and slammed it into a wall with her tackle. This time however, to her satisfaction, it was actually hurt by the attack and sent a string shot at her in panic. She dodged and gave it another glare. It shuddered again, seeming even more intimidated than before and hurriedly shot a few poison stings at her, all of which she evaded. Not giving it a chance to use any more moves, she finished it with one last tackle.

"You did it!" Spark cried from the other side of the room.

"That was strange though, I only managed to faint it because its defence suddenly dropped enough for me to actually do some damage" Snivine said.

"That was probably because of your leer" Emboar said, coming to thump her on the back.

"Leer?" she asked.

"It lowers the opposing pokemon's defence" Emboar explained.

"Wow! You just figured out how to use another one of your moves!" Spark squealed excitedly.

"Well that's good, cause I'm starting to get tired from using so many tackles" Snivine said.

"And that kakuna is getting tired of waiting for you to stop talking" Emboar said. They looked around to see Snivine's kakuna, who'd just maxed its defence to its absolute peak during their celebration. Snivine had thought it was at its peak before, but now, it was a nightmare in shining armour.

"It seems like we have another opponent to defeat then" Snivine said, masking her underlying annoyance. Spark was about to nod and bound forwards, when he yelped and fell to the ground, shuddering.

"The poison….do either of you have a pecha berry of any kind of poison resistant item?" Emboar said.

"Well…I do have a pecha scarf, but I'm not sure if that'll work" Snivine said, taking the scarf off and showing it to Emboar.

"It won't cure the poison" Emobar said, turning it around in his hands, "But it helps it a little bit. It'll have to do."

Gently, he sat Spark up and tied the pecha scarf on. The purple patches lightened a little bit, and Spark slowly got up onto his feet.

"Are you feeling any better?" Snivine asked, staring down the remaining kakuna intently.

"A bit" he said.

"Ok, well I'll just take this one myself" she said, ducking under a stream of poison stings.

Taking a deep breath, she decided to focus on lowering its defence first and prepared to give it another glare. Before she could do so, it spat a string shot right at her face and followed it up with a poison sting.

Snivine could barely see the edges of her vision as she felt a poison sting hit her one after the other. Quickly, she darted sideways so that the poison stings would fly right past her and hurriedly used the time to rip off most of the string, leaping out if the way just in time as another poison sting flew her way.

With the string out of her way, she then gave the kakuna a death glare before trying a tackle. I'm not going to describe to you how bad an idea that was, but just let me say this- never _ever_ try it if it's the last thing you do.

It was like she just ran into a truck driving at full speed. One leer was clearly not enough. She may have tainted the knight- no, nightmare-'s shining armour, but it was still almost as good as new. The kakuna clearly had no worries about a slightly bruised defence, as it merely shined it right back up with an award-winning harden.

Growling in frustration and rubbing her head, Snivine got back up and shot some more leers at it, trying to lower the defence enough for her to actually do some damage. _Any_ amount of damage. To her absolute horror, it happily renewed its defences with a harden every time. It was a showdown. On the left was a snivy glaring with all its might, and on the right was a kakuna blinking obliviously as it stiffened its body.

Snivine glared.

The kakuna blinked.

Snivine glared.

The kakuna blinked.

Snivine glared again.

The kakuna blinked again.

Snivine was about to scream in fury, when a small fireball flew past her face and onto the kakuna, who squealed in pain and writhed around trying to put the fire out before fainting onto the ground.

Snivine turned around to see Emboar withdrawing his outstretched fist-which still had a few embers on it- and brushing them off casually.

"Emboar? I thought you weren't supposed to help us" Snivine said.

The dual fire type shrugged. "Well, it was sort of getting a bit too long, so I decided it was time to end the otherwise eternal battle. But now you know why I try not to attack for you too much."

The kakuna in shining armour, the kakuna that had proved invincible to both Spark and Snivine, was now gone from a single fireball from Emboar, a charred spot on the ground being the only mark of its existence.

"Don't worry, you'll be beating up tyranitars soon enough!" Emboar laughed. Just then, the beedrill that had been sitting back as the battle raged on stepped forwards from its spot and hissed furiously. It seemed quite surprised and shaken by the absence of its two allies, but flared its wings threateningly nonetheless.

"Just one more" Snivine sighed, getting back into battle stance.

"BZZZZ!" it buzzed, dashing forwards and slashing at Snivine with fury attacks faster than she could see. Snivine staggered back covered in small but painful wounds and slashes all over her body.

"Argh" she grumbled, but shook off the pain and retorted with a tackle attack that the beedrill dodged with ease. This time, it closed its eyes and a red energy surrounded it for a second before it snapped its eyes open again with a more focused look in them. Snivine tackled again and succeeded, but it then used a twineedle that hit almost twice as hard as it should have, even to a grass-type. It seemed to have hit just the right spots in just the right way to cause immense damage.

"Critical hit!" Spark cried.

"The focus energy must've made it much easier for it to strike a critical" Emboar muttered.

Snivine stopped to observe her opponent for a while. Everything had a weakness, there had to be a more efficient way to defeat the beedrill.

Suddenly, the snivy rushed forwards and zoomed around the beedrill until it was staggering in confusion, then struck it with tackles as quickly as she could. The beedrill tried to use the focus energy tactic again, but Snivine made sure to hit it with tackles to all of its body before it could concentrate itself. Slowly but steadily, a red aura began to appear around the beedrill's body. Knowing the beedrill would destroy her with one more twineedle like that, Snivine stepped back and put all of her energy into one last tackle. With a screech, the giant beedrill went flying into a wall and slowly faded until it was completely gone.

"It's….fainted…" Snivine said, breathing heavily. She looked down at her wounds, which now pulsed with pain after the excitement was over.

"Great job Snivine, considering that you were going up against pokémon with two types you're weak to, that was amazing!" Emboar said.

"Yeah!" Spark squealed.

"Thanks, but maybe we should get to the next floor now, I want to get this beedrill-filled dungeon over and done with" Snivine grumbled.

"Don't worry, mystery dungeons seem to have distorted space and time so wounds tend to heal much more quickly than usual" Emboar assured. Just like Emboar had said, by the time she'd walked to the stairs, a quarter of her wounds were already gone.

"I wonder how the other groups are doing" Snivine sighed as they climbed the stairs.

 **Zippy Floette and Leafeon**

 **3F**

"AHHHHH!" a helioptile screamed as he zoomed out of a passageway and crashed into a horrified looking floette and leafeon, knocking over the leafeon and tripping over the floette's flower before face-planting into the ground.

"Argh! What now?!" Floette yelled at the electric-type, brushing off her flower carefully.

"S-sorry….a weedle shot a poison sting at me…" Zippy stuttered, stars still swirling in front of his eyes.

"So what?!" Floette yelled again.

"But now it's stuck…on my rear!" Zippy wailed, turning around to reveal a poison sting stuck right on his bottom. Floette looked more than infuriated and glared at him in disgust.

Leafeon only sighed before carefully tugging the sting free.

"OWWWW!" Zippy yelped.

"Idiot…" Floette muttered.

"It's ok" Leafeon said gently as Zippy rubbed the stung area. "Don't mind her. It's only your first time exploring a dungeon after all."

"Why did we have to go with a wimp like him of all pokémon?!" Floette growled. "The little helioptile's been messing things up since the first second we laid foot in this dungeon!"

"He's a beginner though" Leafeon reasoned.

"Guiding newbies through mystery dungeons like Serene Forest…that should be a low-ranker's job" Floette grumbled on.

Leafeon shook her head. "Come on, let's keep going."

The very next room they entered just so happened to spawn a giant horde of weedles, metapod and kakuna. The bugs slowly surrounded them and began to clatter unnervingly. One snapped at Leafeon and she quickly swished her leafy tail away from its little jaws.

"Oh great, monster house. Now we'll have to defeat all of these pokémon by ourselves while defending Zippy from any more poison stings" Floette growled, swinging her flower around herself to fend off some of the bugs.

"What's that?" Zippy asked.

"When you step into a room and suddenly tons of pokémon appear everywhere inside the room" Leafeon said helpfully.

"I can help!" Zippy said enthusiastically.

"Forget it" the Floette snapped.

"B-but really! I can do it this time…." Zippy insisted as the two Shinygleams began blasting away at the weedles and caterpie. Still, more came and they swarmed everywhere in such numbers that some even came down from the walls and 'ceiling'.

"Thundershock!" Zippy cried, zapping a few with a small bolt of electricity to no avail. If only he could help a bit more….

Suddenly, great beams of sunlight appeared that slightly seared and prickled his skin. With a gasp, Zippy opened his ear flaps and felt amazing energy flow through him.

"Thundershock!" he tried again, wincing at the pain of the scalding heat. This time, a huge blast of electrical energy lit up the whole room, fainting several bugs and badly injuring most of the rest.

Floette couldn't believe what she was seeing, and paused with her flower falling limp in her hand.

"Take that!" the electric lizard shouted again, sending a few more bolts at the bugs until none were left. Afterwards however, he staggered and fell onto the ground in exhaustion. Floette observed him curiously as Leafeon hurried to sit him up.

"Hidden ability solar power huh? Maybe he won't be so useless after all…." She muttered to herself.

 **Serene Forest clearing**

Light filtered softly through the trees' branches and leaves above and a small clearing with a tiny pond in the middle signalled the end of the three-floor dungeon. Snivine, Emboar and Spark walked out of a cave-like exit made of leaves and plants.

"I-is this the end of the dungeon?" Spark asked. Emboar nodded. "Oh, only three floors…I thought there would be more floors than that."

"Nope, Serene Forest is a tiny dungeon. Maybe you can go to Rusty Cave is you want more of a challenge" Emboar replied.

"Hey Emboar, what took you guys so long?"

They turned to find that most of the teams had already finished the dungeon and was waiting for them.

"Sorry, the beedrills and kakunas proved to be a bit difficult for these two" Emboar said with a laugh. Snivine and Spark looked at the ground in embarrassment.

"Oh don't worry. I almost fainted in there on my first try" Camerupt said. "In fact, Baltoy needs to rest up from all those grass types."

Lying on the camel's back was a fainted baltoy with swirls in his eyes and a few leech seeds still stuck in him. Emboar nodded and took the poor ground-type, using a few light embers to burn off the remaining leech seeds.

"Baltoy…Camerupt…." Emboar counted. He suddenly paused and looked up. "where's Cotton, Cloud and Breeze?"

"Hey, have you heard? _Shade is coming to Acrinom in TWO WEEKS!"_

Walking out of the dungeon was the three girls, who let out an ear-splitting chorus of screams.

"OH MY ARCEUS! I HAVEN'T EVEN PREPARED A SUPER IMPRESSIVE OUTFIT YET!" Cotton squealed, taking quick short breaths and fanning herself with her paw.

"I want to tell him how much I love him and get him to sign an autograph, and my wall of pictures, and the Shade bows and pins I have, and my eight books on him…!" Cloud said dreamily.

"Oh don't worry, I can help you guys out if you want" Breeze said. "I know a SUPER awesome secret."

"Ooo! What?! What?!" Cotton and cloud asked. Breeze spread out her wings around them and whispered "Ok, but this is just for you. Don't tell anyone else. It's a SUPER big secret, you understand?" They nodded. "Well, all you need to do, is get a dragonair scale and leave it in some water- clear, clean water! Then, after a while you can take it out and get some pokémon to use dazzling gleam on it. After that, you grind it till it turns into a soft, sparkling, shiny, pearly rainbow powder than you can sprinkle all over yourself. It makes you look like you're radiating with silvery rainbow light!"

They then let out another round of squeals together.

"Achem, if you girls are done, then we'd like to get on with this please" Emboar said, only half joking. Finally, they calmed down and muttered a few apologies.

"Thank you. Now let's head back to the lodge" he sighed.

"So, we're going to start doing dungeons by ourselves now?" Snivine asked as they walked back.

"Mmm…well, I guess there are still a few things to complete before that" Emboar said.

"What stuff?" Spark asked inquisitively. The fire boar only shook his head and walked on.

 **Acrinom Town**

At the lodge, they were quickly greeted by the DET members who hadn't guided any new explorers through Serene Forest, who all seemed to wear bright smiles and chuckled every now and then.

"Great job guys!" Luxio grinned as they met him and a crowd of other pokemon at the hallway. Quickly, they ushered them past the common room-which they were only able to get a millisecond's glimpse of-into the dining room where a big bowl of freshly made salad sat on the table.

"Lunch! Come on, eat up!" he encouraged. Hungry but slightly confused, the new members began munching on the salad as most of the others hurried off to somewhere else, knocking Floette out of the way in the process.

"Hey! Ugh, why do you do this every time?! So childish…" she grumbled.

"Floette" Luxio pleaded, "Come on, what's the wrong in a bit of fun? If you're not going to help out, then stay here with the new members."

"No thanks" she quickly said, "I'd rather help out with whatever you need for that…thing."

Luxio shrugged. "Fair enough."

The new members snatched a suspicious glance with each other. After they'd finished the salad, the electric type then happily escorted the awkward pokémon to their rooms.

"Have a nice rest!" he said politely before shoving the Seekers of Truth inside and closing the door.

"Well…." Snivine said.

"Are we supposed to go to sleep now? It can't be that late already!" Spark cried. "I don't wanna go to sleep!"

"I don't think so. We spent the early morning in Acrinom and some of the morning and midday in Serene forest. It seems to be sometime in the early afternoon now" Snivine replied looking outside the window.

"What do we do then?" Spark asked.

"Have a short rest I guess" Snivine said. "I guess we can hang around for a while until dinner or they call us."

"Aww…" Spark said sadly. "I can't stay still for that long!"

"We don't have anything else to do. Besides, we got a bit ruffled up in Serene forest. If that was reasonably bad, I can't imagine what our next dungeons are gonna be like" Snivine said.

"Ooo! I know! We can play guess who!" Spark cried.

"What? Guess who?"

"Yeah! Someone pretends to be a pokémon and the other player guesses who they are!" Spark explained excitedly. "Come on! You can guess first!"

"Uh…ok…" Snivine said. They didn't have anything else to do anyway, so she may as well have went along with it.

"Alright! Let's start!" Spark squealed delightedly, jumping onto all fours and snorting loudly, stomping a paw every now and then.

"Uh…." Snivine knew what it was, but had no idea what the pokémon was called. "The pokémon with hooves and fire on its tail and mane that was in team Volt?"

"That's not its name!" Spark said.

"I don't know what it's called!"

"Guess!"

"Uh…firetail?"

"Nup."

"Flamerunner?"

"Nope!"

"Flarehoof?"

"Nu-uh!"

"Blazehorse?"

"Wrong!"

"Flamingpony?"

"NEGATORY!"

"Flamesnort?"

"Tut, tut, tut…."

"Horse-thing?"

"NEXT!"

"Pony-thing?"

"N- Ooo! Close!"

"Oh, so it's called a Ponything?"

"Hmm…"

"…."

"Snivine, you are absolutely….."

"FINALLY!"

"…Wrong! Have another try!"

"WHAT THE ****"

They went on like this for quite a while, with Spark making the poor human-turned-snivy guess many different pokémon that she'd never even heard of before in her entire life.

"OK! I _QUIT!_ I QUIT THIS STUPID GAME THAT I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO EXPERIENCE ON AND I AM NEVER PLAYING IT AGAIN!" Snivine finally announced, after an afternoon of tiresome swearing and guessing.

"Wait! No!" Spark cried, quite disappointedly. He, on the other hand, had been having quite some fun with Snivine.

"WHAT?" she huffed.

"I'm sorry….I didn't know you'd know so little about pokémon…..but I haven't played this in so long, and so…..can't you just play one more round with me? Please?" Spark pleaded, widening his eyes, folding his ears back and glancing at Snivine with the most poor, innocent, angelic look.

Snivine was on the verge of shouting ' _NO. ASK SOMEONE ELSE TO PLAY THIS STUPID GAME WITH YOU!'_ but managed to control herself and finally succumbed to Spark's look of innocence.  
"Fine, just _one_ more" she sighed.

"Yay!" Spark squealed, grinning cheekily. He then stuck his tail out and pulled his face out so that it was long and distorted, half closing his eyes too and attempting to look serious.

"Uh….is that even a pokémon?" Snivine asked.

"Yuuuupppp!" Spark said through his distorted mouth.

"Well it better not be some kind of complicated pokémon that's near impossible to guess."

"Oh douun't wooorry! It's soooomettting you shoulllld be veeerrrry farmiliar wirrrth!"

"Ok….well I certainly don't recognise it…." Snivine said, hoping that she wasn't going to have to go through a rage-quit process again.

After some long minutes of thought, Spark released his pose, rubbed his cheeks and went over to Snivine.

"Hey, have you got it yet?" he asked impatiently.

She sighed and shook her head. "No idea."

"Aww, ok, well think some mo-"

"Spark…I'm really tired after all of that guessing, can't you just tell me the answer now? Please?"

"Hmm…well, ok." Spark grinned and prepared to jump back into the pose.

"I was…" he resumed his pose, "YOU!"

" _What?!"_

"Yup, it was Snivine!"

"F-"

"Hey! Time for dinner!" someone called from the door. They turned around to see Luxio giving them a wide smile, waiting for them. They seemed to have played so much that they forgot all about the time!

"Come on! Let's go now! The dinner will get cold!" he said as he pushed them out the room and escorted them towards the dining room.

"I'm never playing that again- for real this time!" Snivine mumbled as they walked.

"Ok….also, Snivine?"

"Yeah?"

"What does **** mean?"

Snivine's eyes widened and she gawped at him with a horrified look. She hurriedly glanced at Luxio, but luckily, he was deep in thought and was also busy escorting them through the halls.

Snivine gulped. How could that have happened? How could she have forgotten to be calm and keep her emotions in control?! Somehow, while she was playing with Spark, her mask just….slid off. It was the first time in almost forever that she'd ever felt so relaxed, truly happy and free….but, how? Why?

"Uh…u-um, don't worry about it. In fact, forget I said that, ok?" she stuttered. Spark cocked his head, then shrugged.

"Ok" he replied.

"And here we are! Go on! In you go!" Luxio cried, as he shoved the duo into the dining room. What lay inside wiped Snivine's mind blank of any more thoughts.

* * *

 **Yay! Well, here you go! Snivine and Spark's first dungeon! I know it was a bit long, but don't worry, the other dungeons with be much less extremely detailed, and much shorter. This was just for, you know, first ever dungeon! I had to make this one a bit special. Also, for the younger readers…uh, sorry about the swearing, it was just for amusing effects! Uh….just…well, don't tell your parents about this kids! :D**

 **Well then! I hope you're happy with finally getting a real dungeon!** _ **And**_ **, chapter 6 shouldn't be too far behind either, with school out and stuff! I have some interesting stuff planned for the next few chapters! ;)**


	7. SOT REWRITE! Important AN!

Hi! It's Snivine here. So, I began writing this story quite a while ago, and back then, I didn't really have much of an idea of where I was going; I sorta just thought it'd be fun to write my own mystery dungeon story XP. But then, I started developing the plot more, and a lot of plot holes + things that I'd left out appeared! I did go back and add/edit a lot of stuff, but fanfiction doesn't let you know when something's been edited, only when there's a new chapter! And most people wouldn't bother going back and re-reading the whole thing again, and I know because it happens with me and my friend's collab too….(I'll be writing my section then she gets bored and when she comes back she announces that she's added a ton of important stuff and demands that I reread our 11 chapter story all over again! O.o)

Things really weren't going well….and I'm guessing a lot of followers missed out on a ton of important stuff. Especially when I added the prologue, lots of things got really mixed up.

SOOOOO, now that I've developed my plot line and story in general MUCH better than that random girl who wrote a random story for the fun of it last year, I've decided to sorta rewrite everything.

I won't delete the chapters, but everything that hasn't been rewritten will have '[OLD]' next to it or something. Don't worry! I'm not really literally completely rewriting it. The general plot, story, characters n' all will be kept, but it's just some little details and stuff here and there or editing that I need to do. Especially, I've noticed that Snivine(the character)'s character as a theif isn't very well expressed, so I'll be making that a bit more obvious. Also another thing was Spark's age!

Spark: "HI! I'M ABOUT 6 YEARS OLD AND I WANT TO JOIN A CLUB WHERE YOU EXPLORE SUPER DANGEROUS DUNGEONS AND STUFF!"

Ampharos: "Oh sure, let's begin the registration procedurey thingingbingagoo…!"

Everyone else: *treats Spark as a totally legit reasonably old dungeon explorer. Nothing wrong with it. Nothing at all….*

Whaaada-whaaaat?! Yeah, I know. There are many more problems I could list here, but the main thing of what you need to know is just…yeah, there are lots of problems with this version, and I'm rewriting it to refine a lot of stuff. Good? Good.

I might also redo the cover as it's not completely…err….accurate enough? I dunno. There will be a lot of changes, that's for sure!

Congratulations on making it this far! A free cookie ticket for you!

I also just got my Super Mystery Dungeon game recently and I've been playing it quite a bit and….

Sighs, I SWEAR! I SWEAR I DID NOT COPY SUPER MYSTERY DUNGEON OH MY ARCEUS I HAD ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA, PLEASE I SWEAR ON MY LIFE, I DID NOT GET THE IDEA OF AMPHAROS BEING THE DET LEADER FROM IT AT ALL! TOTALLY COINCIDENCE! XP XP XP XP

And how unfortunate it is that my friend alerted me to the fact that a famous poketuber had a mascot helioptile called Zippy?! I SWEA-I'm not gonna even….*sighs*

Alright, well..! I am very proud to say that I have very big plans for this story and where it's going! I don't care how long it takes, but I promise! I WILL GET THIS STORY DONE! Whatever it takes!

Wow, you actually read all that? YEEEEE! A BOX OF COOKIES! AND FREE HUGSSSS! YOU ARE AWESOME [insert name here]! *hugs you*

Thanks for reading, and look out for Seekers of Truth-REBOOTED! :D :D :D :D :D :D


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